Not so one night stand
by PsychoticallyMe
Summary: Spencer wakes up in an unexpected situation, one that's going to change the rest of his life.
1. Chapter 1

The first thing Spencer saw when he woke up, was hair, and it wasn't his hair. His nose had been pressed into the strawberry blond waves, a heavy weight on his chest as he breathed in the smell of strawberries and alcohol. It was a predicament that he never saw himself in, one that he didn't know how to get out of. He recalled her name vaguely though the drums in his mind, Layla, a last name didn't come to mind. He thought about trying to lift her off of him but when he moved, even slightly, her arms wrapped around his tighter and she murmured incoherent syllables that seemed to be in protest.

Spencer couldn't remember how he ended up here, he couldn't think of what they spoke about the night before, one thing he knew for sure, was that this was, other then last night, he'd never seen the girl before now.

After a few seconds, he realized why he woke up in the first place. His phone was vibrating on the nightstand. The consistent buzzing seemed to be waking her as well, her sounds became more alert and he could feel the change in her breathing.

"What…?" It took her less then a second from opening her eyes for her to register what happened. The bed wasn't large enough for her reaction, causing her to fall from the bed onto his floor, taking the blanket with her. Spencer was thankful to realize that he was wearing boxers and he couldn't tell what she was wear or not wearing from the way blankets were wrapped around her.

Spencer was speechless himself, let alone figure out if he should calm her down or if he should just let her come to conclusions on her own. "Did we….?" Her opened ended questions held all the answers she needed. It wasn't like it took much imagination to figure it out, the fact that she saw her dress hanging off the dresser and her shoes had been tossed to opposite sides of the room nailed the coffin shut.

The next few seconds were of Spencer trying to calm the girl down as she threw her clothes on and ran out of his apartment. She repeatedly apologized as she did this, it looked like she was about to cry, and Spencer was so unprepared for his, not to mention he was hungover and still half asleep. Within five minuets her things were gone and so was she. Spencer had followed her to the door, but she had ignored his calls after her and all he could do was shut his apartment door and move to see what his phone was doing.

The bright lights of the briefing room only made his head pound worse. He nursed his coffee as the rest of his team slowly filed in. His thought continued to move back to the girl. He'd never thought about one-night stands or how one was to respond to them. He felt bad, Layla obviously wasn't happy about and from what he was able to remember from the night before, she'd been pretty drunk.

"How'd your night go?" Morgan's voice was suggestive, Spencer remembered Morgan being at the bar with him, "I noticed you left early. The bartender said you left with a girl." He raised his eyebrows. Spencer felt his face redden, and he looked away from the other agent. Morgan laughed at him. "You go back to her place or yours."

"I'm pretty sure we have a case to work on." Spencer said.

"Everyone is waiting on Hotch to get here at the coffee maker. Come one man."

"My place, she ran out this morning."

"Ran?"

"And apologized profusely, she didn't let me say anything."

"Yeah…" Morgan sighs, "that happens sometimes." Spencer shook his head, thankful that J.J. came into the room, saving him from further questions.

* * *

"Layla!" Marissa's voice carried though the locker room as Layla finished pulling down her shirt. Marissa appeared around the corner where Layla's locker sat. She preferred to change in the very back corner of the locker room that people had to go out of there way to find.

"Jacob is looking for you." Layla's mood fell slightly, not that she was feeling very good before. She adjusted the orange spandex shorts as she moved to follow Marissa out of the locker room. Jacob never called for them unless they were in trouble. The other girls called him the watchdog, the other managers didn't bring him into the picture unless they needed him to bark at the end of the chain

Jacob's office was at the end of the hallway right before the main dining room. He was sitting at his computer, his head held up by his hand as he focused on his screen. Layla knocked at the door even though it was already opened, she didn't like walking into people's spaces unless she had their explicit permission, a left-over habit from her childhood, one that's served her well. He glanced up from the computer and nodded her inside.

"Can you shut the door behind you?" He asked, his voice wasn't as harsh as it normally was when he calls people into his office. Layla herself has never been called in. She always did her best to avoid trouble, just doing her job and leaving. "Have a seat." He said, nodding to the chair in front of his desk.

"Have I done something?" She tried to keep her voice respectful, she couldn't tell if she succeeded.

"No, its nothing you've done…One of the other girls brought something to my attention and I just wanted to address it with you in private." He cleared his throat. Layla saw the seriousness in his eyes and she squirmed underneath the gaze. "Due to the nature of our restaurant, we do attract a certain type of customer, I know you understand that right?" Layla nodded, "but that doesn't mean we will allow our employees to feel uncomfortable or unsafe while they're on the clock." Layla suddenly understood what he was talking about.

Her parents had come into the restaurant a week before. It wasn't the first time they came into her workplace to harass her, Layla normally did her best to not let their presence bother her, just ignoring them typically worked, they would get annoyed and leave, but that time had been different. They managed to work their way into her section and she had a break down in the locker room. She should have known someone would tell a manager.

"I want you to know, if you ever feel unsafe or uncomfortable with a customer, you can tell us, and we'll handle the situation accordingly, whether we have someone take over the table or we remove the customer." Layla nodded.

"I…" She didn't want to spill her entire life story with his man. "That…" She sighed, "that situation was brought on by those specific people." It still wasn't how she wanted to explain it, but it was the most coherent thing she could spit out of her mouth. "It won't happen again." She added quickly.

"Unless those people come back in…?"

She inhaled sharply. "Right."

"Okay then, if they come back. Just let someone know and we will make sure its properly taken care of. May I ask who the people were?" Layla thought about it, and figured she should probably tell him, that way he would be prepared if they did come back in.

"They're my parents, I cut off contact with them when I was 18, but they don't…. they go out of their way to mess with me despite my attempts to stay away from them." Layla could tell that he wanted to know more but Layla's face was clear, she didn't want to speak more about it so he dismissed her from the office and she thanked him. When she left the room, she blew out the breath she'd been holding. She knew that it wasn't that bad, she'd been in the opposite of trouble, but it was still confrontation. It didn't help that she was still reeling from what happened that morning.

It wasn't like her to sleep with a random man, it was like her to sleep with anyone, period. What made it worse was how she couldn't remember how she got there. She remembered meeting him at the bar, she remembered thinking he was sweet, and he bought her a few drinks. They debated Shakespeare and that's when things began to blur, she remembered talking about a few more books before her memory went black until she woke up in bed with him.

She was embarrassed about her reaction, if she could redo it. She would have calmly explained that what happened was a mistake, he probably thought she was crazy. All she could hope was that she never saw him again. Not that that made it any better.

"Everything okay?" Marissa caught her as she was putting an order into the system.

"Yeah." Layla said quickly, hitting the enter key and turning away from the machine, pushing her note pad into her little apron. She tightly smiled, "I'm fine, just a little hung over." Marissa smirked.

"I'm sure. I lost you last night. Anything…. interesting happen?" Layla was thankful for her concealer at that moment. If it could cover the dark circles under her eyes, then it could hide the bright red blush that she could feel creeping over her face. Marissa knew her to well though.

"What's his name?"

"I have tables."

"They can wait for five seconds. Come on! I've known you for over five years and you've never even looked at a guy for longer than five seconds, I was beginning to think you were hiding in the closet! Layla's jaw opened slightly.

"Just because I don't ogle, doesn't mean I'm gay, it means I'm respectful!"

"Whatever, name?" Marissa crossed her arms over her chest. Layla would have moved around her if Marissa wasn't directly in Layla's way. Layla bit the inside of her lip and squirmed under someone's gaze for the second time today.

"It starts with an S…" Marissa's eyes widened significantly.

"You don't remember his name?"

"Remember whose name?" Jacky came up behind Marissa, more then likely to put in her own order.

"My taxi driver's name." Layla said, pushing around Marissa, hurrying to her tables before Marissa was able to catch up with her and demand details. "Just a few more hours..." Layla mumbled to herself. "Then you can curl up in a ball and forget today ever happened."

 **If you want to read more, please tell me in the reviews! Thank you for reading! set around season 3 or 4**


	2. Chapter 2

Spencer couldn't decide if his slight obsession with the girl was because it was the first time he ever slept with a woman, no strings attached, or if it was the memories that kept coming back to him about the night before she ran out of his apartment. The only serious black out moments that Spencer could recall having were from when he was abducted by Tobias Hankel moments, those memories were still coming back in small snippets, much like his night with Layla came back.

After a few days he remembered some of their conversation. She'd been at a birthday party for one of her coworkers he'd found her at the bar, slightly overwhelmed by the amount of people that were pushing though the area. He sat with her for a little while, whatever started the conversation still hadn't come back to him, but he remembered her going on a long rant about Macbeth and how she found the play to be overrated and anticlimactic. Of course, he argued with her on it for a little while, his points against her claim made her laugh. He couldn't remember what got them back to his apartment, as much as he searched his mind, he tried going back to the bar to trigger it, but nothing helped. It was driving him crazy. It didn't help that he could still smell the scent of her hair in his bedroom. He knew that he was imagining it, wishful thinking, but just because he knew it wasn't real didn't mean it felt fake. He wanted to see her again, he wanted to know her last name, he wanted to know more then the smell of her shampoo or her distaste of Macbeth.

"Dude." Morgan's voice sounded annoyed and slightly concerned. Spencer's eyes snapped to him, they'd decided to get lunch together on their hour break. "Can you stop tapping your fork on the table?" Spencer hadn't noticed his movements and the sound they were making. "It's just Hooters."

"No…. that's not it." He shook his head. Morgan's face took on a look of understanding.

"You're still thinking about the girl, aren't you?" Spencer didn't answer him. "Dude, it was a one-night stand, you're not supposed to dwell on it and overthink everything."

"I'm not overthinking anything."

"It been almost two months and you're still thinking about her." Spencer turned towards the menu even though he'd already read it other. He did it more as an excuse to not answer the other man.

The restaurant was busy, granted it was the lunch rush, but Spencer felt like it had more to do with clothing the waitresses were wearing. Even Morgan seemed to be enjoying the view of some of the girls that passed them. One of them had already taken their drink orders because their waitress seemed to be running a few minutes late. Spencer didn't think anything of it until the same strawberry blond rushed though the front door and into the back of the restaurant where he assumed the locker room was. Morgan watched Spencer's eyes follow the girl, they widened in recognition and Spencer froze when she disappeared from sight.

"That's not her." Morgan said, shaking his head at the chances of it.

"No, that's her." It took her less than five minutes for her to come out of the room and back onto the floor. She had changed into her own uniform and had a notepad in hand. The waitress that had taken their drink orders went up to her and handed her a different notepad and Layla replaced hers with it. They spoke for a quick second Layla attempted to brush her off, her face told both agents that whatever the other girl was saying, it was nothing Layla wanted to partake in. The girl grabbed her arm when Layla went to move around her, she raised her eyebrows, waiting for Layla to answer whatever question she asked.

"Yes! Okay!" Layla snapped at her, her voice loud enough for the two men to hear. Layla flinched at the volume of her voice, her shoulders shrinking down a little as she glanced around to see if anyone heard her. She said something else to the girl before moving to her tables.

"Looks like you've got your chance man." Morgan said, mostly amused.

"Chance? What are you talking about?"

"You've been nonstop thinking about this girl right? This it your chance to ask her out."

"Why would I ask her out?" Morgan sighed at Spencer's confused face.

"Because, you like her. And when a guy likes a girl, he asks her out. What's the worse that can happen?"

"She says no."

"Rejection is a part of life kid, something that you just gotta learn to live with." Morgan took a sip of his drink as Spencer thought it over. "She's headed this way." Spencer started tapping the table again, much to Morgan's annoyance, but Morgan didn't comment on it.

"Hi I'-" The look she gave Spencer said she remembered exactly who he was. She stuttered for a few seconds before regaining her composure. "I'm Layla and I'll be your waitress. Are you guys ready to order?" Her smile was beyond forced and her foot was tapping rapidly. Morgan looked between her tapping foot and Spencer's tapping fingers.

"I think a we need a few more minutes." Morgan said after it became apparent that Spencer wasn't going to say anything. He smiled at her and she didn't question it before hurrying off to another table. "You gotta say something man."

"You're the one that wants me to ask her out. And I don't think she's in a good mood."

"No, you want to ask her out. You've been obsessing over her for the last two months and she didn't seem that put off. Nervous? Yes, but trust me, I've experienced far worse reactions after seeing some of the woman I've slept with for a second time."

"I'm not you! I don't have one-night stands, I don't even know what was going through my mind that night to take her back to my apartment."

"You were hammered." Morgan said calmly, trying to calm him down enough so he wasn't talking loud enough for the other patrons to hear him. "Your judgement was impaired, it happens to the best of us. You like her though right?"

"I barely remember what happened that night."

"What do you remember?"

"We argued about Macbeth."

"Macbeth?"

"Shakespeare. She was talking about how Macbeth and his wife were serious cowards and that the whole story was unclimactic and predictable-"

"So, she knows Shakespeare, that's a point her in favor right?"

"It's not about points, you-"

"Reid, how often do you get a girl stuck in your head? The fact that you're caught up like you are says that there's something special about her and I'm not going to let you ignore it." Morgan waved Layla down, nodding her over.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm hungry." Layla was chewing on the inside of her cheek as Morgan relayed his order, she wrote it down quickly. She turned to Spencer, but she wouldn't meet his eyes. She waited, pen to paper and it took Spencer several moments to spit the order out and she almost ran away from them again. Morgan shook his head at Spencer and chuckled slightly.

000

"Layla."

"Marissa, now is really not the time." Layla picked up the food for table six as Marissa attempted to corner her. Layla was having a hard time thinking straight and the fact that the man was sitting in her section wasn't making it any easier.

"I know, but like….do you know for sure? Like _Dr Sure_?" Marissa's voice was anxious, and Layla shut her eyes tightly.

"Yes, blood work and everything." Layla turned around, trying to balance all of the food on her arms but two dishes were left over.

"I got those." Marissa grabbed them and walked with Layla to the table. "But, that was the first time in awhile right?"

"They say it only takes one time." Layla said tightly. "But I can't worry about that at the moment. Between work and making sure the house is ready for him when they release him from the hospital tomorrow morning, I don't have time to worry about this or think about it." Layla smiled at the large group at the table as she set everything down. One of the older men winked at her and she kept her smile on her face.

"Thank you baby." Layla brushed her ponytail over her shoulder.

"Of course. Let me know if you need anything else."

"But you need to think about it because its literally going to change your life. Are you going to tell the guy?" Layla's eyes flicked to the man sitting at the table, the one she was trying to avoid even though it was her job to keep track of them. He was looking at her too, his eyes moved away when she met his gaze.

"I don't know what I'm going to do." Marissa followed her gaze.

"That's him?"

"Marissa, please can we talk about it after work?"

"If I let you wait until then, you'll think of a better reason to keep putting it off." Marissa lowered her voice due to some nosy people at the table a few feet away from them. "I know you're scared, and you have every right to be, but you're not alone. You have me, Noah, Angela, Linda, your grandfather, and everyone else."

"Seriously, I can't handle it right now. I just…"

"Do you want me to take the table?" Layla thought about it but decided against it.

"No, I already feel bad about running away from him without talking after it happened. It would be rude."

"You liked him though, right."

"I mean, he was sweet at the bar but…I don't know, what if he was acting? Just because he wanted to sleep with me."

"I highly doubt he would have debated the marrets of Macbeth if he was just trying to get in your pants. And you need someone else to talk books with, I can't keep hearing you one sided rants when I don't know if they're real people or not. Getting angry at fictional characters that upset you has been draining."

"It's not that bad."

"Still. You need someone to be a dork with. Now you need someone to help raise your dork child."

The mention of a child caused the panic to come back. "I have no idea what do to. I am in no way, shape, or form deserving to have a child, but I can't stand the thought of an abortion and, having been bounced around the system, I can't risk putting a child though that by putting them up for adoption. So, I either suck it up and abort it, or I have the kid and fuck it up like my parents did to me."

"You are nothing like your parents Layla. Your parents are narcissistic, inconsiderate, drug addicted pieces of shit. They do nothing but try and kill and kind of happiness you try to have in your life. Don't let them take something that is supposed to be exciting, yes babies can be exciting, and ruin it, just because you're worried about turning into them." Marissa said, "because, I promise you. You won't be like them." Layla wiped at her eyes angerly. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Then let's get back to work. Then we can go to my place and we can binge watch zombie moves and draw on Noah's face after he passes out." Layla giggled at the thought, her mood lighting slightly. Their conversation ended just in time, because Jacob was coming out of his office and he didn't like it when they slacked off and talked.

Layla still didn't know how to handle the two men at table three, but she forced her smile on her face once again and went to get their food.

"Alright, a double bacon burger." She set it down in front of the man whom she hadn't see before today. "And a salad." She was trying to remember his name. She knew it started with an 's' but she didn't want to ask. It made her feel terrible that she couldn't remember. What did that say about her, she couldn't even remember the name of the man that got her pregnant.

"Thank you." S said. _Steve….no that wasn't it._

"Of course. Would you guys like anything else?" She was feeling slightly more comfortable but still. _Shawn…. no. It was something smarter…._ It was driving her crazy.

"Yeah…" The other man said, leaning back in his chair. He gave S a look, nodding to Layla. When it became clear that S wasn't going to say anything he sighed. "I think my buddy here would like a chance to get to know you, while you're both…. sober." S had been tapping the table excessively.

"I…I" S stuttered. "You don't have to do that…" His face was growing red and Layla was once again thankful for her concealer. "I don't want to bother you-" Layla herself was at a loss for words. She normally wasn't good in social settings. It took her a very long time to get comfortable in customer service. But her act with customers was exactly that, an act.

"Ummm."

"She would _love_ that." Marissa's voice sounded behind her. The Man smiled. "How about a movie on Saturday night?" Layla turned and gave her friend the dirtiest look she could muster, and from some of the looks that had been sent her way growing up, she had plenty of examples to chose from.

"That sounds perfect." The man said, causing S to sputter. Marissa wrote something down on her pad of paper before ripping it out and handing it to S.

"Here's her number, she likes nerdy movies." S took it tentatively. "Pick her up at 7, she'll send you the address." Layla was then dragged away by Marissa to another table that had been trying to get her attention.

"I don't even remember his name." Layla growled to her once they were out of hearing distance.

"Well, you have two days to figure it out. Maybe he'll text it to you."

 **Thank you guys for all the reviews. I know this seems like its moving kind of fast, but that's because there's no sense in beating around the bush. I hope you guys liked this chapter and please leave your thoughts down in the reviews. Thanks for Reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

Layla pulled at the rack in her oven, one hand covered in an oven mitt, the other one holding a cake pan. She had about 18 hours before she needed to get her grandfather, Eliot, from the hospital and she was hoping the cake would be finished by then. She ended up canceling the movie night with Marissa, using the 'not feeling good' excuse that she's been using for the last few weeks, and decided to hole up in her house. She didn't want to talk about the impending date, both the one with the guy and the other one being a due date.

Two out of four dogs, Orion and Sirius, that Layla has were sniffing around her feet, looking for any food that Layla might have dropped for them. They were pressing against her legs, normally she would have them blocked off in the living room, so she didn't have to trip over them but tonight she was a little on edge, having them near her was making her feel better. Layla had adopted them while volunteering at the shelter the year before.

Orion was by far the more adjusted dog out of the two. He loved Layla, but he didn't need to be pressed against her at every second but Sirius on the other hand. If Layla wasn't touching him while she was in the same room, he would cry and whine until she did.

Layla did everything she could to break the clinginess, but he just wouldn't have it. The shelter figured that whoever owned him beforehand had tried to raise him as a fighting dog but when he was too nice, the dropped him off on the side of the road. It made Layla upset whenever she thought about it and just decided to deal with his needs and let him cling to her.

Layla's third dog, Leo, was a German Shepard that her grandfather got her right after talking Layla in at the advice of her therapist. He was happily sleeping on the couch, snoring away. And the forth one that she lovingly named Argos was a Saarloos Wolfhound that she got from one of her grandfather's friends a few months ago and he had already doubled in size. He was trying to wake up Leo, chewing on his ears and mouth but the older dog wasn't having it and just ignored him.

Once the cake was in the oven, she got to work on making the frosting, grabbing her ingredients and portioning them so it wouldn't be such a mess when she finished. She'd just grabbed the bowl from the counter when her phone started going off. The sudden noise made her jump and she dropped the bowl onto the counter, thankfully it didn't break, but it almost gave her a heart attack.

A number that she hadn't recognized was on the screen and she debated on answering. Her parents got a new number every time she blocked the last one, but it could also be the hospital about her grandfather. "Hello?"

"Hey…It's Spencer." _Spencer! Damn, I should have remembered that!_

"Hi!" She berated herself for her tone, it sounded like she'd been standing by the phone, waiting for the call. She was just excited that she finally had his name.

"Sorry, I'm not a fan of texting." He said, "I prefer to call."

"That's fine. I'm kind of the same way." Layla continued to work on the frosting, the phone pressed between her ear and her shoulder.

"I uh….I looked at the movies that are out, but all of them are action movies-"

"That's okay, we don't have to go to the movies, dinner is okay."

"Dinner?" His voice was more excited at that point, "do you like Italian? There's a really good restaurant down town."

"Italian's good. I'm not picky, anything you want is good." Layla finished up the frosting and started on the fondant. Layla was practically breathing the awkwardness, she didn't know how to break it and she wasn't sure if he did either. "I'm sorry about running away like that before, I'm not really good in those…those type of situations. I get really anxious and-"

"No, don't apologize. It's a natural response to run when someone gets scared, flight or fight."

"I've been trying to work on that, freaking out around new people, but it's been a slow…slow progression. I can't believe I even went home with you- I don't mean that offensively, it just takes me forever to get comfortable around people and I…" She was at a loss for words.

"It's really okay." Spencer said. Layla thought about how she would tell him about the impending kid. Would he leave? Demand she get an abortion. She didn't feel comfortable with not telling him. Mostly because when the kid was born, they would ask questions, want to know where their father was, and they would deserve to know. Unless he was a danger to them, she had no right to keep them from one another because she had problems.

The more Layla thought about dinner the more her stomach churned and vaulted around. Surprisingly, the smell of the baking cake wasn't making her sick. "Your friend, he seemed nice." Layla was just trying to get a conversation going, anything to break the tension.

"We work together."

"Really? What do you do? I know you mentioned it that night, but I can't remember anything really."

"I'm a part of the Behavioral Analysis Unit in the FBI. I help track down serial killers and rapists by examining their behavior and creating a profile and narrowing down the suspect pool."

"Really?" It peaked her interest, at the same time it freaked her out a little. She always turned the news off whenever they started talking about murder. She's been involved in enough violence in her life. "That sounds like it would be scary."

"It can be…but studying human behavior and understanding what makes someone do something and being able to predict what they're going to do makes it less scary."

"I don't know…" Layla said, "I…I don't know how." Layla didn't know how to say it without telling her life story to this man. "I'm just a bit of a whip, I have a hard time around violence."

"That doesn't make you a whip. In fact, most of the time, people who kill, do it because they are lacking some type of control. They either feel inferior and need to compensate for their short comings, or they feel the opposite and feel the need to put someone else, the victim, in their place. There are a lot of other factors that come into play, every unsub is different, but I find that to be a major correlation."

"So, the ones that need control, they're like playground bullies on steroids? You stand up to them and they either back down or become worse?"

"It depends. There's a lot that goes into it. Have you ever taken a psychology class?"

"No, I've always been more of a literary person. I wasn't allowed to really go anywhere as a kid, just school and home, so I would check out as many books as the school would let me and hid in my closet with a flashlight."

"Why weren't you allowed to go anywhere?"

"I…my parents were really….controlling. I wasn't even allowed to pick out my clothes for the day until I moved out." She regretted saying it the second it left her lips, thankfully Leo started going crazy at the front door, causing the other dogs to run and join. "Dinner, yeah. If you text me the name, I'll meet you there. I live a little ways out of town and you shouldn't have to drive all the way out here." She set down the frosting bag down on the counter.

"Okay, I can do that."

"I get off of work at 6:30, is 7 good?" Leo was jumping at the front door, his paws scratching at the wood.

"7 is great."

"Sweet. Sorry, my dogs are losing their minds, I gotta go. See you Saturday." She waited for him to say bye before she hung up the phone. Leo was still going crazy, but Layla grabbed him by the collar and pulled him away. She had to stand on her tip toes to see outside the peephole and she could make out the stocky build of her father outside the door, his fist lifting up to bang on it as she pressed her eye to the small window. He made three sharp raps on the door causing her to jump back.

She made sure the door was locked as she moved away from the wooden barrier. Layla figured he wouldn't try to get in with all the barking and growling. He was a cruel man, but he wasn't a stupid one.

"Layla, open the door." Sirius followed her back into the kitchen, the island separating the living room where the front door was, and the kitchen. She could see the door plainly and she was happy that she had closed all the curtains around the time it started getting dark. "Open the fucking door." Leo was growling at that door, his fur prickling, lips pulled back exposing his teeth. Eric shook the door knob and Layla had to close her eyes and take three large deep breaths. If he said one more thing or pulled at the door harder, she would call the police, just like her grandfather told her to do, just like she did last time.

"I know you're in there, all the lights are on! You think I'm fucking stupid?" The door shook again.

"Okay Layla, everything's going to be okay." Layla said to herself, Sirius nosed at her hand that wasn't dialing 911. She sunk down to the floor, her back pressed against the island, that way he wouldn't see her right away, not that the dogs would let him get that far. "Just a regular day."

"911, what's your emergency?" Layla rattled off her address.

"My father is banging on my front door in a violet manner, he's already been told by the police not to come onto the property the last time he was escorted off."

"Alright, I dispatched an officer. Are you safe?"

"At the moment, yes. I have four large dogs. I fear for his safety if he gets inside the house."

"Layla! I'm not going to tell you again!" His words were slightly slurred, and Layla closed her eyes tightly, her fingers wrapped inside Sirius's fur. Her panic medication was in her bedroom. The dog was helping though.

"The police will be there in a few minutes." The operator said soothingly. "I'll stay on the phone with you until they get there."

"Okay, everything's going to be okay." Layla said it to herself, over and over again until she heard the sound of sirens.

 **Thank you for reading! Please leave a review!**


	4. Chapter 4

"Seriously?" Marissa's voice carried around the locker room as both girls changed back into their regular clothes. "He came to your house again? I thought the police told him they would arrest him for trespassing."

"They did but he posted bail yesterday morning after I picked Grandpa up from the hospital." Layla pulled a simple black flair dress down over her head, it wasn't anything special, but it would work for dinner tonight. "They set a court date for two weeks from now, Grandpa wants to try and get a restraining order."

"Damn right, you should have gotten a restraining order after Eliot won custody when you were 17." Marissa huffed and shook her head. Speaking of Eric always made her blood boil. "How he Eliot doing?"

"He's….he's got stage 3 lung cancer." Layla pulled her hair out of the ponytail in an attempt to distract herself. She had been trying to keep herself from dissolving into sobs all day, not that her added hormones were helping. It seemed like nothing was allowed to go right in her life. "The doctors gave him less then a year." Layla shoved her feet into her shoes, the black, platform wedges added five inches to her height, making her somewhat average size.

Marissa didn't know what to say, she had been expecting something like pneumonia or the flu, not cancer. "I'm sorry, that really sucks." She would have hugged Layla, but it was easy to see she was having a hard time keeping herself composed. "If you need anything, just let me know." Layla nodded, not trusting herself to speak. "Are you sure about dinner tonight? You've got a lot going on right now."

"You're the one that got me into it!" Her voice was slightly wavering, but it held though.

"Well, I wasn't expecting anything crazy to happen between then and now."

"It doesn't matter," Layla smoothed down the wrinkles that were in her skirt from being folded up in her bag all day, "Grandpa has been trying to come to terms with everything and he said he wanted some alone time. I know that if I go home, the silence is going to drive me crazy and I'm just going to bug him. Not to mention, Spencer already texted me the restaurant and he's going to be there soon, and I would feel terrible if I cancelled this late." Marissa chewed on the inside of her lip as Layla gathered the rest of her things, shrugging on her coat.

"Are you going to tell him about the baby?"

"I haven't decided yet, I know I'm going to tell him eventually but you're right, everything has been a little crazy and I might wait."

"I wouldn't wait, you need to know how he feels about it now, the last thing I want for you is to fall head over heels for this guy and have him tuck tail and run the second he finds out you're pregnant." Layla sighed, not wanting to envision that.

"I'm not going to fall 'head over heels.'"

"I don't know, you did willingly go back to his place and sleep with him, when's the last time you even let a man hold your hand?" Layla opened her mouth to retort, but Marissa cut her off, "one that you're not related to or have known for more than a year." Layla didn't have a response to that.

"I still don't think I'm going to get too attached from this point to when I tell him. I just…"

"I get it, it's hard. But its not just about you anymore, you could get away with avoiding confrontation and difficult situations when it was just you to worry about. But he needs to know because it's his baby too, not to mention, you need to figure out his family medical history, so the doctors know what their dealing with, When I was pregnant with Skyler, they wanted as far back as my grandparents." Layla hadn't even thought of that. "And if he does decide to stay in the picture, you need to tell him about your batshit crazy family so he's not walking in blind."

"It's only my parents. Everyone else isn't that bad."

"You just think that because you compare everyone else to your parents and they're the only ones that hit you." Layla flinched at the bluntness of Marissa's words. "If my aunts and uncles and cousins treated me the way they treat you, save Macy, Anthony, their spouses and kids; they're beautiful creatures, I would have decked someone by now." Marissa could see Layla begin to pick at her fingertips and chew on the inside of her cheek, "I don't mean to get you all worked up before your date, but you need to hold your ground because the second these people realize you're pregnant…trust me when I say people lose their mind, manners, boundaries, and just overall filters. You remember Noah's mother when we told her about Skyler."

"I just…I need to tell my Grandfather, but he's already going though a lot."

"I think Eliot would be over the moon, this would be his first great-grand baby and will be a nice distraction. You know he adores you."

"This timing is terrible."

"Timing is always terrible. You just got suck it up and roll with the punches. I would try and get that restraining order in place before you tell anyone else besides Eliot, the last thing you need is your parents causing issues." Layla nodded, agreeing fully with her.

"Okay, I'm going to be late. I'll call you after I get home." Layla gave Marissa one last pathetic excuse of a smile and left the room before Marissa could add anything else.

The drive to the place Spencer picked out was thankfully, quick. She was going the opposite way of everyone else, so she managed to make it with a few seconds to spare. Layla was hoping it was warm inside and her prayers were answered.

"How many?" The hostess asked, smiling at Layla over the podium, her fingers resting on a stack of menus. Layla peered around the girl, looking around the main floor. She spotted Spencer's frame in the back corner of the restaurant.

"Umm…my party's in the back corner." Layla pointed to the man. The hostess, her name tag reading Tracy, looked over her shoulder as well.

"Alright! Have a great time!" Layla smiled at her again before moving around her and quickly making her way to the table. Spencer saw her before she reached the middle of the room and stood to greet her.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." Layla said before he could say anything.

"I haven't been here long." He grinned tightly, not really knowing what to do. He pulled her chair out for her, he knew to do that much after reading a few books on making the best first impression possible. Of course, Morgan hadn't let him hear the end of it after catching Spencer reading them. "You look great."

"Thank you. You do as well." She said, making sure her dress was underneath her thighs as she sat down, smoothing out the top once she got situated.

"Of course, Um- I ordered you a water, I wasn't sure what you wanted to drink."

"Waters great." Silence followed after that, neither one knowing what to say. Layla took a generous sip of her water, glancing around the restaurant. Italian was her grandfather's favorite. The thought of her grandfather brought back the same thing she's been thinking all day, thinking of what her life without him would look like, then Marissa's words came back to her.

Spencer was watching her face closely, he could tell she was upset despite her smile when she walked in, but he didn't have a clue as to what was causing it. "Is everything okay?" He asked carefully, not wanting to upset her more, but at the same time, he wanted to make sure that he wasn't the source of her discomfort.

"Yeah." She said quickly, too quickly. "Everything's fine…just a long day at work."

"How long have you been working there?" Spencer saw the opening for a conversation and he took it.

"Umm, about six months. I used to work in the mall, but my manager was a creep, so my friend got me in at Hooters." She took another large gulp of her drink. "Its not the best job, but it pays the bills." She crossed her legs to keep her foot from bouncing, noticing Spencer's intense focus on her. She hadn't remembered him being like this that night. Then she remembered that he studied human behavior for a living. "How long have you been with the FBI?"

"About 5 years." He said, and Layla frowned.

"How old are you?" She hadn't really thought about it, he was old enough to be drinking in the club and that was all she'd been worried about. But he didn't look that old and she had no idea how old you hand to be in order to work for the FBI, but I probably took a lot of schooling and that could/should take a long time.

"27." Layla's eyebrows shot up, she hadn't been expecting that. "How old are you?"

"21, wait, if your 27 and you've been with them for five years, then you would have been…" she did the math in her head.

"22," he finished for her. "22 is the age requirement but normally the trainees are older due to the need of a bachelor's degree." That didn't seem as crazy to her then it had in the beginning.

"What's your degree in?"

"I have PhDs in Mathematics, Chemistry and Engineering and BA's in Psychology and Sociology." Layla almost spit out her water. _Alright, this guy is officially out of my league._ Layla had barely managed to graduate high school, let alone get into college and obtain a degree.

"You're 27 and you have five degrees…are you like a genus or something?"

"I don't think intelligence should be measured like that but, by definition, yes. I have an eidetic memory." Layla looked at him with wide eyes. Spencer was trying really hard to keep himself from intimidating her. It was a reaction that people often had when he told them about his 'gifts', but he could see it on her face clearly. She either had a very difficult time hiding her emotions on her face or she just wasn't trying to, Spencer didn't know her well enough to tell the difference.

"Hi." They're waiter seemed to appear out of nowhere, making Layla jump. "Are you guys ready to order?" Spencer looked to Layla, he already knew what he wanted, but she hadn't even opened her menu yet.

"Uhhh." Layla opened it quickly and skimmed the page, "the Chicken Alfredo looks good." Spencer ordered the same thing and the waiter left just as fast as he came. Layla turned her attention back to Spencer.

"Okay…so eidetic memory is when you can remember everything right? Like an elephant?" He smiled at the comparison.

"Kind of…I can remember everything I read verbatim, some things that I see or hear might fall though the cracks."

"So, you could recite full length novels if you wanted to."

"I can." Layla's slightly confused/intimidated face was suddenly replaced with a huge smile.

"That's awesome!" She seemed to sit up straighter in her seat. "Trivia night with you must be a lot of fun."

"It depends, my friends get a little tired of it sometimes." He could feel his face going a little red. He scratched the back of his neck. Layla thought it was cute. Things were quiet for a few moments after that. Would the baby be that smart? Of course, it didn't matter if they were or they weren't, but she wondered. Thinking of the baby, her light mood dropped dramatically. Marissa was right, Layla was staring to like the idea of him. Spencer noticed her change in mood almost immediately.

"I…um- okay." She squared her shoulders a little, trying to take in some of Marissa's 'take no BS' personality as she tried to word what she needed to say. "Before you and I…god this is difficult. I just want to preface this by saying….I don't expect anything from you and I understand that when we met in that night and we…spent the night together, you probably weren't expecting to see me again so…." Spencer was thoroughly confused. Layla took a deep breath, like whatever she was trying to say would have to be forced from her lips. "I'm pregnant." She watched his face carefully. Her foot was bouncing a mile a minute, her fingers picking at the skin around her nails.

"You're…" Spencer hadn't thought about pregnancy, though he should have, but the idea just hadn't crossed his mind. Maybe it had been wishful thinking, maybe he was just oblivious to the possibility. "Are you sure?" Spencer felt his face get hot, not because he was embarrassed but because his heart started beating faster and he couldn't envision himself with a kid, especially not with a girl he knew next to nothing about.

"Yes, I had a blood test done at the clinic a few days ago. I…I wasn't sure what I was going to do about it at first, I thought about getting an abortion but I…I don't think I can do it." Spencer didn't know what to say, he was just kind of frozen in place. "You're the only person I've been with in the last three years…" She added. Spencer was still at a loss for words, but he was saved by the water coming back with their food.

Layla ate the food silently, not wanting to push him to say anything, but it was too awkward for her. She should have waited, things were just starting to become more laid back.

Spencer did the math in his head. She would be about 8 weeks. 8 weeks, that meant in about 32 weeks there would be a baby, a crying, viable baby. Layla watched the emotions on his face, she recognized confusion, fear, and an array of other things.

"I um…." Spencer drank down half of his drink. "I don't…" He stumbled over his words. "I don't want you to get an abortion." He said it after another round of facial expressions that Layla couldn't read. Spencer noticed her chewing on the inside of her lip. "I just."

"Yeah…" Layla echoed his tone. "I get it. I wasn't…." She poked at a piece of chicken with her fork. "It's been a crazy few weeks." At that point, Layla didn't know if it was just the way he was looking at her or if it was just her reaction to everything that's happened in the last week, but she felt her walls start to crack and she quickly wiped the tears out of her eyes before they had a chance to fall. She really didn't feel like breaking down in a crowed restaurant. "Excuse me for a second." She stood up to go into the bathroom, but Spencer jumped up right next to her, grabbing her arm.

"No, wait," he thought she was leaving, "I'll pay, and we can go for a walk or something." Layla really didn't want to break down in front of him either, but she had a hard time telling people 'no', so she didn't say anything and just let him do it. The waiter gave them boxes, going out of his way not to stare at the tear tracks that were going down her face and rushed Spencer's payment though. Layla saw him give the waiter a rather large tip and they left.

 **Soooo, Spencer knows...didn't go too bad right? Anyway, tell me what you think about Layla, anything stand out or do you think she's a little bland? Thank you for reading! Please leave a review so i know you liked it!**


	5. Chapter 5

**i wanna apologise for and mistakes, I typed this out on my phone. Thank you for all the reviews and I'm glad your enjoying the story.**

Layla didn't say anything as they walked around the park. It was quiet, and Layla was happy to be away from people, she missed the heat though. She'd grown up in Florida and her definition of 'comfortable' weather wasn't anything like the people around here.

"Have you told any of your family yet?" Spencer couldn't stand the silence, he kept glancing at her, watching as her eyes never rose from the ground, how her arms were wrapped tightly around her abdomen, how she'd wet her lips every few seconds. She wasn't just tense, she was jumpy, and Spencer found it a little alarming. Layla had stopped crying by the time they made it to the park.

"No." She said, taking a deep breath as she said it. "I only told Marissa." She said it without realizing that he wouldn't know who she was. "My family's a little…" She scoffed, her shoulders lifting as the air puffed out of her nose, "I don't think it will be received well by most."

"Do you mean your parents?" He thought back to their conversation on the phone. Most of the color drained from her face and she gulped.

"I'm not telling them." Layla said, "I want to keep it a secret for as long as possible. I'm going to have to tell my grandfather soon, I live with him, but everyone else…" She shook her head. "Most of my aunts and uncles, except two of them, hate me. The second they catch wind; my parents will know." Spencer frowned. He didn't know her well at all, but her lack of confidence made it hard for him to understand how someone could hate her, granted he'd seen people hate others for little to no reason. He wanted to ask more about it, but he didn't want to upset her anymore then she already was.

"What about your family? Do you think they'll be upset?" Layla sniffled, looking up from the ground for the first time, her arms tightening as she met his frowning gaze. Spencer thought about his mother, probably reading something in her room or yelling at her nurses because she didn't want to take her meds.

"I…don't know what my mom would think, it would depend on the day." He left it at that, not wanting to get into her medical problems. Layla didn't press it, just nodded like it made perfect sense and turned to look at the lights coming from the city. "My team though…I don't think they will be upset. Shocked, but not upset."

"Your team?"

"My coworkers." He elaborated, "we're like a family." Layla smiled softly, it sounded nice to her. "What about your grandfather?" He directed the conversation back onto her. Layla was silent for a long moment and Spencer wasn't sure if she'd heard him.

"I don't know…he's…he was." Her eyes glossed over again and she frustratedly wiped at them. She looked up at the trees above them and sighed. "They just diagnosed him with cancer yesterday morning. They…" She shook her head, "there's just a lot going on at the moment and I feel like I'm just adding to the problems."

"Why would you be adding to the problems?"

"Because…Grandpa shouldn't have to worry about anything else but himself right now, but inside he worries about me constantly and I don't do anything to reassure him that he doesn't need to. He's old, stress isn't good for him, and how he has less then a year to live, and I should be taking care of him but I'm going to be too caught up in baby things and my own doctor appointments and dodging my family members when this should be a time where we all get together." Her breathing was increasing, and she could feel her chest tightening up. At this point it was to late to calm herself down. She had gone off her medication after finding out she was pregnant and so far, she'd been able to avoid panic attacks. The image of her estranged family looking at her, each one making their own comments and pressing their opinions onto her.

"Hey, hey, hey." Spencer pulled her over to a bench when he realized what was happening. "Head between your knees. Just breath." It was unclear how long they sat there, silent as Layla worked though the chest pain and forcing her lungs to work. The nausea was something she'd been dealing with for a few weeks, but she knew how handle that. By the she could think clearly, she felt nothing but intense embarrassment. She'd gone two months without a panic attack, and the first time she had one, it had to be in front of Spencer.

"I'm sorry." She said.

"Why are you sorry?" He seemed generally confused.

"Because, you just met me and…I get that me getting pregnant was a 'our fault' kind of thing, but I have a lot of problems and you shouldn't be subject to dealing with them."

"Everyone has problems."

"But I'm a mess. I'm sorry…I was diagnosed with Complex PTSD when I was 18 and I…I've been doing a lot better after going to therapy for the last few years. I'm almost normal as long as I'm not around any of my stressors." She hadn't wanted to tell him about it, but she wanted him to know what he was getting into.

"Don't be sorry, you don't need to be sorry." His words echoed her therapist's, but it didn't make her feel any less remorseful. "Are you on any medication for it?"

"I was when they first diagnosed me….but I have a service dog, his name's Leo, I don't take him out with me very much any more and he's become more of just a pet in the last few years. He still helps when I'm at home." _Unless he's being a guard dog._ She added the second part to herself, he didn't need to know the extent of just how crazy her parents were. "I still have some prescriptions, but I only take them if I absolutely have to, and by the point they just put me to sleep."

"Maybe you should start taking Leo out with you again, everything's that going on in your family and the added hormones from pregnancy are probably exacerbating the anxiety that's leading to your panic attacks." Listening to him talk was very weird for Layla, generally when someone hears about panic attacks and anxiety or anything to do with mental health, they either share their own issues, didn't matter if it was the real thing or just their definition of mental illness, or they just brushed it off and changed the topic, either because they didn't believe it was that bad or they just didn't know how to make it better. Spencer was talking to her like it was the most normal thing in the world. He wasn't freaked out, he didn't ask why she felt the way she did, it was refreshing.

"I guess…" She said, she tried to think of how her job would respond to that, she hadn't needed a service dog in the last 6 months that she worked there, Layla would have to explain the change, she understood that she legally didn't have to do it but it would make her feel really bad to just demand the special treatment. How would she even do that, just walk him to each table with her, that seemed unsanitary. Layla could probably just have him lay down somewhere out of the way. "Yeah, that's a good idea."

"When's your next doctor appointment?" Spencer asked Layla didn't respond for a long moment, she was still thinking about Leo, he repeated himself when he realized she hadn't heard him.

"Two weeks, Tuesday. I know he, the doctor, said something about numbers being high…I can't remember what he was talking about though, I couldn't focus on anything." She shrugged dejectedly , her arms tightening around herself. "He gave me some vitamins and sent me on my way." Spencer made a note of it in his mind. Numbers? HCG levels? Blood pressure? Blood sugar? He looked to her again and she was watching him closely. "You can come if you want…" Layla had no idea if it was something that he would want to do.

"I'm not sure if I'll be in town," he said, "I travel a lot for work and I almost never know until an hour before I have to leave." He added when he saw her confused face.

"Oh."

"But, if I'm here. Definitely." He smiled. Layla looked at him for a long second, why was he such a nice guy? Out of all the people in that bar, all the men that were looking for someone to take home, how did she end up with a seriously amazing guy, _at least that's what he looks like now. You still don't know him._ She reminded herself.

They talked some more, just sitting on the park bench. He told her about his team, their names and just basic things and she told him about her group of friends. She laughed at some of his stories, mostly at the one where he got stuck in the elevator. He hadn't thought it was funny, but he liked her laugh.

"What time is it?" She asked, having lost track of it a long time ago.

"Almost 9" _9?_ That didn't sound right, but it was. Both of their phones seemingly went off at the same time. Layla's grandfather showed up on her screen and Spencer's was a text from J.J.

"Hello?" Layla answered it on the second ring. She probably should have told him she'd be out for a little longer then normal.

"Layla, are they working you to close tonight?" He sounded worried.

"No, I'm out," she looked to Spencer, "I was out with a friend tonight, you'd mentioned you wanted some time alone, so I figured I'd leave you alone for a little while, sorry if I worried you."

"It's okay, I was just worried about what happened with Eric the other night, I don't want you out alone."

"I'm not alone." She said, looking at Spencer as he texted someone back. "I think I'll be heading home soon anyway; do you want me to grab you something to eat?"

"No, I ate what you head in there for me already. I spoke with a lawyer today about the restraining order, they want you to gather all the texts, emails and such from your parents." Layla sighed.

"Okay. Is it okay if I do it in the morning? I'm off tomorrow and I don't think I have much energy left in me."

"Of course, we'll talk more when you get home. Drive safe." They said their goodbyes and Layla hung up the phone. Spencer looked at her apologetically.

"You have to go?" She figured.

"Yeah, I have a case." She nodded.

"It's okay, my grandfather's expecting me home." Spencer walked her back to her car in the restaurant parking lot. It was about a 10 minuet walk.

"Where's your car?" She asked as she stuck her key into the door.

"I took a cab." He said, glancing over his shoulder like he was looking for another one.

"Do you want me to drop you off?" She asked, not seeing a point for him paying for cab fare. He went to protest, "no seriously, it can't be that far." Mostly it was because she didn't want to leave him just yet. When it was clear that she wouldn't be taking _no_ for an answer, he begrudgingly climbed into the passenger side. The smell of strawberries hit him directly, bringing back memories of their night together, of her body pressed against his on top of his sheets. It had shocked him, it was the first real memory he had of them…together. She hadn't noticed his venture into his through as she pulled her seatbelt on and cranked the heat up.

"How do I get there?" Spencer directed her and it wasn't long before she was pulling up to the front of the FBI. She looked up at the large building with wide eyes, trying to imagine what might go on inside.

"Thank you." He said as he unbuckled his seat.

"Of course, it's the least I could do." She said in reference to his staying with her during her little 'episode'. "You're a really nice guy. Like really nice." She wasn't sure how else to emphasize it.

"Why wouldn't I be nice?"

She shrugged, "I don't know, I feel like most guys, when told they got the girl they drunkenly slept with, they would argue, deny it…at least that's what happens in the movies. You didn't even question me."

"I believe you, it was clear that you weren't lying." He said it like it was the most obvious thing. She didn't understand it but the last thing she wanted was to poke the bear. He noticed J.J. and Emily both getting out of their respective cars and making their way towards the building. He opened the door and the cabin light came on. He turned towards her to say goodbye but when he turned she had leaned over and pressed a chaste kiss to his cheek.

"Thank you." His face turned a deep red almost immediately and it made her giggle slightly. He stumbled over the words "goodbye," as he got out, waving to her as she drove away. Spencer cleared his throat, hoping that the cool air would clear the color from his face. As her car left the parking lot, he realized that he had an audience. Both J.J. and Emily we're looking at him with shocked and excited faces.

 **Thank you for reading! Please leave your thoughts!**


	6. Chapter 6

When Layla got home, her grandfather was fast asleep in his recliner, his snoring overpowering the loud cartoons that we're playing on the TV. She got him up and led him to his room, knowing that his neck wouldn't feel good in the morning if he stayed like that all night. After that, she got herself in the shower and then she passed out herself.

000

Layla woke up to Sirius licking at her cheek. When her eyes opened, the dog laid the front of his body on her chest, his paws resting at her chin. It had been her first day off in forever, and she didn't want to get up. All she wanted to do was curl back up on her side and close her eyes once more, but instead, she had to shoot off the bed and throw up what little dinner she had eaten the night before. Leo trotted into the bathroom after her, nuzzling her with his nose.

Layla pushed him away gently, leaning herself against the bathroom cabinets, catching her breath. Leo climbed over her legs, pushing his face between her arm and her side. When she was sure she wasn't going to throw up again, she carefully climbed to her feet.

Her grandfather was sitting at the kitchen table when Layla made it down the stairs. He was reading the newspaper like he did every other morning. It both reassured her and unsettled her all the same, he didn't look like a man who was just told her had less then a year left. Layla shrunk into the seat across from him and he peered at her over the rim of his glasses. Layla pulled her feet onto the seat and her legs to her chest, any other morning she would have filled a mug to the rim with coffee, but the smell was making her stomach churn.

"You and Marissa go out last night?" Eliot took in her appearance and attributed it to a hangover. Her regarded her with minor amusement.

"No, Marissa had a thing with Noah's family." Layla yawned.

"Linda and Josh then?"

"Nope…" Layla figured she'd have to tell him about Spencer and their little accident. "I had a date." She said, reading the headlines from the paper backwards, her tired, caffeine deprived brain not being able to make sense of the words. Eliot raised his eyebrows in shock, using most of his will power to not appear that surprised. He tried to encouraged her to do regular things that woman her age did and he found that not reacting strongly was the best course of action. The thing that Layla hated the most was attention.

"Did my phone call cut it short?"

"No," Layla assured quickly, "he had to leave anyway." Argos came to sniff at her and Layla scratched behind his ears. "I met him at the bar two months or so ago."

"You've been seeing him for two months?"

"No…no, I saw him again a few days ago at work and he….asked me out." She decided not to go into full detail. Layla had absolutely no idea how to lead the conversation towards the topic without just flat out telling him she was pregnant.

"What's he like?" His voice held the disbelieving, _what type of punk am I dealing with,_ tone.

"His name is Spencer, He's really nice, he's got a really good career, he's really smart, like genius smart-"

"Oh, he's a genius?" Layla could hear the amused disbelief.

"He has two bachelors, and three PhDs."

"How old is he?"

"27." Elliot's eyebrows raised once again. Six years wasn't that bad of an age difference, not for adults. "He works for the FBI, I think he said in the Behavioral Analysis Unit. He helps with finding serial killers."

"Sounds like a dangerous job."

"He didn't go into a lot of detail."

"And you like him?" Layla felt her face redden. Not that it really mattered if she liked him or not.

"Yes. How are you feeling?" The mirth that had been in his eyes moments before seemed to dissolve. He cleared his throat and turned back to the paper.

"Better now that I know what's going on. Six different doctors over the last two years weren't able to figure it out…maybe if they had been better at their jobs this could have been caught earlier." Layla chewed on the inside of her lip. "All those commercials about smoking, and how it dramatically increases your odds and I've never even touched one of those bastards." He shook his head in disgust. He folded the paper up and set it in front of him on the table.

"Did they give you any treatment options?"

"Yeah, but…" He shook his head again. "I'm not going to bother, no need to waste the money if I'm going to croak anyway." Layla's eyes widened and her mouth fell open.

"But Grandpa-"

"Layla, sweetie, I'm 76, I've gone around the sun enough times, I don't have too much fight left in me. The doctor told me I've got about a year without treatment, of course they can't tell for sure, but I'd rather have one good year and manage my symptoms then feel like shit and still die a few months later." Layla felt her throat get tight and she couldn't form a coherent thought in her brain. "That's why we have to get everything settled with your parents before I'm gone, I need to make sure you're going to be okay."

Leo nuzzled her legs, causing them to fall to the floor, and jumped up so his front paws were on her lap. "But-" Layla was cut short by the sound of the front door opening. Leo stayed with Layla and Orion shot up from where he had been curled at Elliot's feet and moved towards the door in a fury of growls and barks, Sirius close behind him while Argos hid behind Elliot's chair, his ears down. He constantly went from being fearful of people at the door and angry. The angry barks turned to happy yips soon enough.

"Knock! Knock!" Macy's voice rang though the house as she moved into the kitchen. She leaned down and kissed Eliot on the cheek and smiled at Layla. "Thought I'd stop in and see how you were feeling." No one said anything to her, Layla lowered her eyes and focused on Leo's presence. Elliot hadn't really decided how he was going to tell his children about the diagnoses, he knew how Layla would react and he knew how to calm her down of things got to out of hand, not to mention she had Leo. His children on the other hand could range from angry and accusatory towards others or demand things of him that he wasn't going to do.

Macy read the tension in the room, her bubbly attitude melting away. Macy was the one aunt that Layla enjoyed being around, she had taken over the role of 'mom' after Elliot finally got custody of Layla, her and her husband would have taken her in if they had room but they had four kids under 12 at the time.

"Hon, why don't you take a seat." Layla gripped Leo's fur. She would have left the room, not wanting to hear it all over again. Macy took it like anyone would have expected. She cried and tried to find a way around it, chemo? Radiation? And he told her the same thing he told Layla. Macy was by far the most understanding, granted she was still in shock and not wanting to except it. "I was going to get everyone one together and tell them all at once." Elliot said after giving Macy time to compose herself.

"Well," Macy wiped away at her eyes and cleared her throat, "Angela and Lucy are on their way as well. They told me last night that they were planning to come over." She gave Layla an apologetic look. "I guess Jasmine's been ranting and raving to them about what happened with Eric and they're pretty upset. I'm surprised I got here before them."

"I don't give a damn if they're upset or not, Jasmine chose to stay with what stupid son of a bitch, and instead of protecting her daughter, she decided to help him abuse her. I don't give a damn if she's upset or not." He took another long sip of his coffee, "Layla sweetie, can you make me another cup?" She happily accepted the task, anything to keep her hands busy.

"I know," Macy said, "I guess Jasmine told them that he was just trying to talk to her and she just called the cops without even acknowledging him first. I know that's not the truth but…." Macy huffed and rolled her eyes, "you know how they are."

Layla set Elliot's coffee down in front of him, breaking through her mouth to keep herself from smelling it. "Layla, are you feeling okay? You're looking a little green." Macy said, turning her concern onto the younger girl, she couldn't fix cancer but she could help a cold or something of lower caliber.

"Just a little nauseous." Layla sunk back into her chair. "I'm fine though."

"Are you sure? Have you tired drinking some tea?"

"I don't think I can really drink anything. I'm okay." She assured. Macy frowned but was prevented from adding anything on due to the other women that we're coming into the house. Both Angela and Lucy reminded Layla of the woman that gossiped in movies, the ones that didn't really add anything to the plot except drama. Lucy was carrying a plate that was covered in tinfoil, setting it down on the counter.

"Hey dad!" Both girls greeted Elliot in the same way what Macy did. "Layla, pass out breakfast." Lucy said without even looking at her.

"How are you feeling?" Angela took Layla's seat after she stood up to move to the tray, peeling the tinfoil back. Inside were breakfast bars, Layla would have been happy to pass them out if they hadn't been made with almost every tree nut imaginable. So much as touching them would cause Layla to break out in hives and for her throat to close up. Layla looked to Macy for help. Macy stood up as the other two woman hounded Elliot for information regarding his hospital stay. Did they feed you? Were the nurses attentive? Did they change out his sheets every day?

"Lucy, what the hell is wrong with you?"

"What?" Lucy wrinkled her nose at Macy's tone.

"You know Layla's allergic to tree nuts. Are you trying to kill her?" Macy gently pushed Layla away from the dish.

"No she's not," she rolled her eyes, "Layla, you can't be allergic to every type of nut. Now, I spent a lot of time on those and it's disrespectful not to eat them."

"Its disrespectful to make something that you know someone else is allergic to and then go out of your way to make sure they come into contact with it." Eliot said harshly. Lucy pursed her lips at him. "Cover those back up Macy." Elliot shook his head.

"Layla, your hands." Layla had been too busy watching the exchange between her aunt and grandfather to see the bumpy redness starting to spread over her fingers and hands where they had connected with the tinfoil. "do you have any Benadryl?"

"Up stairs in my bathroom." Macy grabbed her arm and started pulling her in that direction while Elliot ripped into Lucy once again, telling her to throw the food away. The best way that Layla dealt with her family was to just not react. If she just sat there and did as she was told, things normally worked out.

"Dumb bitch." Macy mumbled as she dug though the medicine cabinet and pulled out the little capsules and passed two to Layla who tossed them back. "You're not having trouble breathing right?"

"No, not yet anyway. I think the pills will help before it gets to that." Macy went to put them back into the cabinet when something caught her eye.

"Layla…what?" Macy held up the positive pregnancy test that Layla had place up onto the top shelf for safe keeping. Layla's face went white as she tried to think of something to say.

 **Thank you for reading and I hope you had a great holiday! Please leave your thoughts and I hope you enjoyed! Sorry for any mistakes, I typed this on the phone.**


	7. Chapter 7

Layla's foot bounced up and down as she sat on her bed and her Aunt Macy spoke on the phone with the clinic. "Thank you, yes that time still works. Have a great day." She hung up the phone and pushed it back into her pocket before turning around to look at Layla.

"Alright, the nurse said that the your HCG levels were abnormally high for having only been 7 or 8 weeks along, that's why they are having you back before 12 weeks. Are you sure that the date you told them was when you conceived?"

"Yes, unless I've been secretly pregnant for years that date is the only possible date." Macy nodded. "Is that bad?"

"No… sometimes women just have high levels and everything's fine that's what happened to me with Maddie, or it could be more then one baby, that's all I can think of but I'm sure there are more things that could cause it. Layla, why didn't you tell me before? I could have gotten you in at my doctor."

Layla chewed on the inside of her cheek. "I didn't…I didn't tell anyone except Marissa who had been the one to make me take the home test."

"You haven't told da- grandpa yet?"

"No, he has too much going on right now." Layla shook her head. "I…I was going to tell him this morning but everyone showed up and I don't want Aunt Lucy and Aunt Angela to know, they'll tell my parents and I just. I can't deal with them knowing and trying to…I don't even know what they would try to do."

"Okay, they don't need to know at all, I know Lucy has to leave for a church thing later this afternoon and I'm pretty sure her and Angel came together. When they leave, we can tell grandpa together." Layla licked her lips. "What about the father?"

"He knows."

"Is he going to help?"

"He said he didn't want me to get an abortion and he's going to come with me to the next doctors appointment if he's in town."

"If he's in town?"

"He travels a lot for work." Macy accepted that answer. It wasn't the best situation but it was what it was. Macy looked back to Layla's fingers that were still swollen and splotchy and she had to take a deep breath to keep her anger at bay, suddenly very thankful that she came over, even if the news about her father was heartbreaking.

"Okay," Macy blew out a long breath, "lets get back down stairs before someone comes up looking for us." Layla had been a little worried someone would come up while Macy was on the phone with the clinic.

"I think I'm going to get dressed first." Layla was still been in her pajama shorts and tank top. Macy pulled her into her arms, catching Layla slightly off guard.

"It's going to be okay." She said when she pulled back, holding Layla at arm's reach. "I know it's scary and I can't even begin to understand how you must feel with your parents breathing down your neck and showing up anywhere and everywhere but you'll get through it. I'll make sure of it." Layla wasn't sure what she was supposed to say to that and Macy didn't pressure her for a reply, just smiled at her softly and left the room so Layla could get changed.

One of the biggest reasons that Layla had finally gone to the doctors was because her jeans started becoming tight at her waist. Since then, she'd been wearing dresses and skirts almost exclusively, the only exception being her work clothes and even those were starting to get rather uncomfortably. It hadn't freaked her or Marissa out much due to the fact that Layla was 5 foot and skinnier then a pole. Now, anyone who didn't know Layla wouldn't even consider she was pregnant, hell even people who knew her wouldn't think it. They would just think she's been eating too many of her cakes, but she could definitely see a small bump right above her pelvis. After looking at it more closely, she started to get paranoid, what if they noticed it and made the connection? Even if it hadn't been true, Layla wouldn't put it past her aunts to spread the rumor around.

She pulled on a basic, flowy black skirt and a matching black off the shoulder top that didn't bunch up around her midriff. When she was positive that nothing about her appearance was weird, she grabbed her phone off the charger and moved back down towards her family.

 _Make it home alright?_ Was the first message on her screen. Spencer had texted her the night before. She must have fallen asleep before receiving it. She hadn't even thought to check her phone when she woke up.

 _Sorry, I didn't see your message until I woke up._ She replied as she walked down the stairs. Marissa had also texted her, wanting details about the date and Layla decided she'd call her later once her aunts left. They were all still crowded around the kitchen table.

"You can't just deny treatment!" Angela said as Layla came into the kitchen.

"The doctor said that it would only give me a few more months."

"Every moment counts! Why would you choose to die earlier when you can have a few more months with your family?" Lucy added on. "What about your grandchildren, don't you want to spend as much time with them as you can?"

"I want my grandchildren to remember me in good spirits, not with my hair falling out and throwing up because of the poison they push into my body." He ran his fingers over his face and Layla rested her hand on his shoulder in a comforting fashion. He looked up to her and smiled softly, patting her hand gently. "This is my decision, and I would feel much better if you were to respect it."

"You want us to respect you killing yourself?" Angela asked.

"You aren't the one that has to go through chemo and radiation." Macy said to her elder sisters. "Do either one of you understand how traumatic that is to the human body?"

"Its worth it." Lucy said stubbornly. Elliot sighed.

"If I thought I could beat it, then I would go through treatment. But terminal means terminal, my body can't take it." Elliot said. "I know you don't understand, you can't possibly understand, but this is how it's going to go." He added gently.

"I can't let you do this to yourself." Lucy said.

"Its not your choice." Macy said. "Dad is the one that decides. Just because we don't like it, doesn't mean that it will change anything."

Angela's eyes focused onto Layla's hand as if it was the first time she noticed Layla had come back into the room. "Did Layla help you come to this _decision?_ " Layla's eyes nearly popped out of her head.

"Why would I want him to die?" She asked harshly, the fact she would even ask something like that made her hair prickle. Everyone in the room was a little taken aback by her tone. "Grandpa is old enough to make his own medical choices." Angela didn't know what to say to that.

"Why don't we all take a few moments to calm down." Lucy said, "we can come back to the topic at a later date, maybe after you've had some time to think over it, you'll change your mind." Elliot took a deep breath. He knew he wouldn't be changing his mind, but he was tired of talking about it at the moment.

"Lucy's right." Angela flattened her hands on top of the table, "we all just need a moment to regroup." Layla refrained from rolling her eyes, Macy didn't.

Layla sunk down into the last open chair next to her grandfather, her phone vibrating in her hand.

 _It's okay, I know you had been a little worked up when you left. Just wanted to make sure you made it home_. Spencer replied.

 _Yeah, I passed out pretty quickly._ She wanted to ask him how work was going but she didn't know if she was allowed to. She glanced up to make sure no one was paying attention to her.

 _Good, you need to rest._ She smiled at the message.

"Who are you talking to?" Lucy questioned in a demanding tone.

"A friend." Layla answered automatically.

Lucy scoffed, "is now really the time to be talking to a _friend_."

"I don't know what's wrong with you today Lucy, but if you don't leave Layla alone, you can leave all together." Elliot said behind his mug. He was getting fed up with her.

"This is my home too, I grew up here."

"No, you're home is with your husband and your children, you've been living on your own for more then 20 years. It's Layla's turn and she can do whatever she wants, with or without your approval." Macy said.

"Not while she's mooching off our father and standing in between his relationship with Jasmine and Eric! Why would you call the cops on your father. He's the one that helped give life to you!" The look of seething anger made Layla shrink back in her chair a little.

"The only thing standing between me and Jasmine is the fact she chose her husband over the safety and well being of her daughter." Elliot said.

"Layla was fine, the word 'abuse' gets thrown around to easily. She was a problem child and it's their right as parents to discipline her as they pleased." Angela cut in.

"She was hospitalized three times!" Macy said, "that's not discipline, that's abuse and if the man that abused me for 17 years showed up on my front door step while I was home alone, you'd bet I'd be calling the police."

"He said that all he wanted to do was talk to her." Lucy said.

"Doesn't matter, I told him if he ever stepped foot onto my property, I'd have him arrested for trespassing." Elliot added. "And pretty soon we'll have a restraining order against the two of them."

"A restraining order?" Angela's voice was disbelieving, like she thought he was joking. "Seriously?"

"Yep."

"Jasmine is your daughter! You can't just cut her out like that. Do you have any idea how awful you not talking to her makes her feel?"

"Your sister made her choice and I made mine. I will not subject my granddaughter to have to be around her abusers. And I will make sure they won't be bothering her after I'm gone."

"So at your funeral, Layla's not going to be able to attend because of the restraining order."

"No, Jasmine and her husband aren't going to be welcome at my funeral and I'll make sure that's outlined in my will." The silence in the room was deafening, if Layla hadn't been scared of them going crazy, she would have left the room entirely. Even Macy seemed a little uneasy on how the energy in the room turned. But Elliot didn't back down.

"And what about the house. It's supposed to be passed down to the eldest child." Lucy's voice was tight. "Are you going to skip over Jasmine and go straight to Anthony?"

"Layla's getting the house. If it had been passed down to Jasmine, then Layla would be the next in line."

000

Spencer didn't normally have trouble focusing on a case but this one was an exception. Babies made him uncomfortable, he's known that almost all of his life. He's always he'd trouble with things he can't communicate with, dogs, cats, any animal really, and small humans.

The team noticed his mental absence but left him alone for the most part, he was still helping, but not at the top of his game. Aaron put him in charge of the geographical profile like normal.

"How was the date?" Morgan had been waiting to get him alone.

"Fine." Spencer answered as he poured over the map. He didn't want to say it out loud until he went with Layla to a doctor's appointment.

"Just fine?" Spencer glanced up quickly and reverted his eyes almost just as fast.

"We're in the middle of a case." Morgan couldn't tell if Spencer's reaction meant that the date went really bad or if he was embarrassed about it going really good.

"And you've been staring at this map for over an hour."

"I'm making sure I didn't miss anything." Just as Spencer said it, his phone vibrated on the table. Morgan checked his as well out of habit.

 _Sorry, I didn't see your message until I woke up._ Layla said. Spencer figured that she'd fallen asleep. He typed his response out quickly before setting the phone on the table.

"So it did go well." Morgan commented. "Did you guys set up another date." The doctors appointment flashed in Spencer's mind and he tried to redirect his attention. He couldn't focus on the pregnancy and this case at the same time.

"We can talk about it after the case." Spencer said, his voice a little on edge and Morgan picked up on it and left the younger agent to his work.

The next few days felt like weeks to Spencer. The managed to find the girl though he wishes he'd been able to save the guy. Now he was sitting alone on the jet waiting for the rest of the team to load up so they could go home. Layla was cheering him up though, apparently, it didn't matter that it was 2 in the morning where she was, she was up baking a cake.

"When's the last time you slept?"

"Umm yesterday m- no wait, today is yesterday because it's 2 am, whatever, it's been over 24 hours."

"Layla, that's not good."

"I know that," she said, "and I would if I could but I can't so here I am." She sighed, "but it's cool because I'm making the best dinosaur cake ever." The playful tone she had was lost of Spencer.

"Why dinosaurs?"

"Because I like dinosaurs and I like making cakes so it makes perfect sense to make a dinosaur cake. Its going to be friggin huge though. I went to measure my flower and the whole bag fell in! So instead of throwing it out and starting over I just made more. It probably won't even fit in my kitchen refrigerator, I'll have to put it in the industrial one in the garage."

"You have an industrial refrigerator?"

"Yep, we got it for a steal! This isn't the first time I've done something like this." Spencer could tell she was a little giddy from her lack of sleep, that or this was the first time she's been herself. Which would make sense, since he couldn't remember the first night with her and the second and third time he saw her, she was incredibly stressed out.

"How are you feeling?" He asked, glancing at his watch, wondering if he came a little too early.

"Uhh...a little scatterbrained, mostly. Oh you probably mean pregnancy wise. Um, not bad. Morning sickness it trying to kill me but other then that…I mean I'm more tired then normal but as you can see, that doesn't seem to matter. Oh! I called the clinic back and they said that it was my HCG levels that were high." It made Spencer feel a little better knowing it.

"Did they tell you what they think is causing it?"

"No, it was my aunt that called, she wanted to know exactly what was said. She's had four kids and apparently, her HCG levels were high all throughout her pregnancy with my cousin."

"The doctor didn't say anything else?"

"No, we spoke to a nurse. We can ask more questions at the next appointment, I already have a list going."

"You told your aunt?"

"She found the test in my bathroom while she was looking for something and asked me about it. I was going to tell my grandfather but my other aunts were over and it just wasn't a good time." Spencer could hear her sigh. "But it's okay, everything is okay." She was saying it more to herself. "What about you? How is work? Am I allowed to ask about that?"

"You can ask, I'll filter out what I'm not allowed to tell you." he answered, thinking back to the case made him feel even more tired than he had been before. "We saved the girl." He didn't really want to go into details about what happened.

"You don't sound like it was a happy ending." She said. He was silent for a moment after that.

"Sometimes it's impossible to have a happy ending, regardless of how the case plays out. But we did everything we could, I did everything I could..."

"That's all you can do then." Layla said gently. "You saved someone, that's amazing all on its own." Spencer wanted to tell her that he didn't save anyone, that he wasn't able to save the teenage boy that the girl's father shot right in front of him, but he didn't. He didn't want to scare her, it wasn't her job to reassure him.

"Your aunt that found out, is she one of the ones you like?" Spencer didn't want to think about the case anymore.

"Aunt Macy is the only aunt that doesn't hate me. I have an uncle that's cool but yes, Macy is amazing."

"Why do you think they hate you?"

Layla took a deep breath. "Its a really long and complicated story, but I know for a fact they hate me. Just the other day my Aunt Lucy made breakfast bars, that's nice and all, but I'm deathly allergic to tree nuts, like one touches my tongue and I go into anaphylactic shock. I'm fine, my fingers broke out in hives after touching the tinfoil of the bars touched, but still…" Spencer could feel her frustration through the phone. "She wanted me to pass them out."

"And she knows you're allergic?"

"Yes! She seen me have a reaction more than once… I just wish they would leave me alone. I don't understand how to make them stop." Spencer could practically feel the alarm bells going off in his head.

"Layla, under no circumstances should you eat or touch anything she has come into contact with."

"I don't think she was really trying to hurt me. She normally isn't that rude in front of my grandfather."

"That's not being rude, it's reckless. If for some chance you didn't realize that there were nothing it and ate it she could be held liable for negligent homicide considering she knows that you're allergic to them and she knowingly put you in contact with them." Just as he said that both JJ and Morgan came onto the jet.

"Spencer!" Leila scolded, "She wasn't trying to kill me, she's mean yes, but I don't think she would actively try to kill me."

"Almost nobody believes somebody else is capable of murder, especially when they're related to that somebody."

"I hardly see her," her voice is flustered and Spencer could tell he hit a nerve. "and Grandpa ripped her a new one for bringing them in. I don't think she'll do something like that again. But I'll be careful."

"Is there anybody else in your family who would purposefully put you in contact with one of your allergens?"

"I don't think Angela would, my parents would for sure, but I'm in the process of getting a restraining order against my father. I have an appointment with the lawyer tomorrow morning, well I guess later today at this point." Spencer didn't ask what prompted legal action but if she cut off contact with her parents, yet she still spoke to her aunt that nearly made her go into anaphylactic shock told him something serious happened. "This is why I don't want to tell most of my family. I don't know what they'll do, I know Aunt Maisie won't tolerate anything from them, but she's not always around and my grandpa isn't always paying attention and I can't expect them to. I'm mostly worried about my parents and I know the second Lucy or Angela finds out, they'll tell them and- you know what? I'm rambling. Everything's okay, I am okay."

"How far along are you in the restraining order process?"

Leila scoffed. "Hardly started. My grandfather has been trying to get me one but until I got pregnant, I never thought one was needed. I regret that now but there isn't much more I can do but jump through the hoops. You should get some rest." She added suddenly, "you've had a long few days. I need to run to Walmart anyway." The jump in topic made his head spin.

"What, why are you going to Walmart? It's 2 in the morning!"

"I need heavy whipping cream! For the frosting." She said it like it was the most obvious thing.

"Why don't _you_ get some sleep and finish it later in the morning."

"Nah, I'll finish today and I'll get some sleep later. Leo! Want to go for a ride? No Argos, you can't go to the store you're not a service dog." Spencer could hear the sound of keys jingling. "I'll call you later." She said. Spencer gave her a flustered goodbye and they hung up. After sitting down his phone, he was greeted with questioning looks of his teammates.

Once he met their eyes, most of them looked away except for Morgan and JJ. JJ had already taken the seat across from him and he knew she was just waiting to ask him about what happened when Layla drop him off.

"Do you want me to ask about it? Or are you just going to spill?"

"It's Morgan's fault. He's the one that made me go to the bar."

"Don't try blaming this on me pretty boy. You're the one that chose to go home with her better yet, take her home with you."

"Now, that's not what I was expecting." Emily chimed in from the seat directly behind JJ.

"You took a girl home with you?" JJ's eyebrows were nearly off of her forehead. "The same girl that dropped you off?"

"Wait, she brought you to work?" Morgan asked.

"Yep, gave him a nice big kiss on the cheek." Emily said.

"Alright, give the kid a break." Rossi was the one that came to Spencer's aid. Both Morgan and Emily chuckled.

"We're just giving you a hard time." Morgan added. Morgan patted him on the back before moving to sit next to Aaron. JJ didn't budge though.

"Was that who you were talking to on the phone?"

"Yes." He answered for the first time since they all began talking.

"What was all the talk about negligent homicide?" Spencer launched into the talk about how her aunt tried to give her nuts that she was allergic to, you don't understand how he was supposed to handle this. She obviously didn't like to talk about the possibility of her aunt trying to kill her, and he didn't know much about their family dynamic to really make any assumptions. He told her everything except the pregnancy, he wanted to hold on to that secret just a little bit longer.

"…she has PTSD, she didn't tell me what caused it but I can only assume that it was due to prolonged abuse as a child. Every time she mentions her parents, she loses all color in her face and she literally starts the shake, I don't even know she realizes she's doing it."

"And she's living with the grandfather?"

"Yeah, I don't know if it's because she can't live on her own, or if it's because she's helping him out around the house. He was just diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer, they said he has less than a year to live." JJ's face fell.

"That's terrible." JJ thought it was kind of odd for her to go into this much detail on the first date, normally you save the heavy-hitting stuff for date three or four, but she didn't voice this, just happy that Spencer was connecting with somebody. "What's she doing up at 2:00 in the morning?"

"Baking a dinosaur cake."

"Why?"

"Because she likes dinosaurs."

 **thank you guys for reading. I appreciate all the reviews you leave me and I truly look forward to what you have to say. Again, this was typed out on my phone so I apologize for any typos you might find. Hope you guys are having a great holiday and thank you again for reading. What do you guys think about Layla and Spencer together?**


	8. Chapter 8

Layla leaned against the side of her SUV as she waited. Spencer said he would get there 10 minutes before the appointment, so Layla showed up 20 minutes early. That morning had, so far, been that best morning in what felt like forever. Layla woke up and only threw up once, she was even able to make her grandfather breakfast without getting sick. Elliot wasn't that suspicious about her nausea, she wasn't a stranger to throwing up thanks to her anxiety. He also noticed that she was taking Leo out a lot more, everywhere except work, he accredited it to her father showing up unannounced.

Over the last two weeks, she spoke to Spencer a minimal amount, mostly because she was busy too between taking her grandfather to his doctor appointments, work, actively avoiding her family and sleeping; there wasn't much time to talk. After Layla's all nighter she crashed had and slept for what seemed like forever. Marissa ended up having to take her shift.

Lucy was in the middle of planning a huge family cookout, even inviting Layla's uncle and his little family from out of state. Layla knew that she wasn't going to get out of it, and her stomach was becoming even more apparent, Layla could play it off as bloating to others but to herself, it was a very real baby bump and it wouldn't be going away anytime soon. The thought of having to be around her entire family while trying to hide it, made her stomach churn.

Just like Spencer promised, he climbed out of a cab exactly 10 minutes before they were supposed to be inside. His eyes scanned the parking lot before they found her. He smiled at her as he moved across the asphalt towards her. She tried to return his smile, but this appointment had been stressing her out. There was a yip from inside the vehicle, Leo reminding Layla that he was inside and not to forget him.

"I hope you weren't waiting long." Spencer said once he reached her.

"Nope, I've only been her for a few minutes." She assured tightly. She opened the driver side door and let Leo jump out. She waited till he was outside before grabbing his leash and hooking it onto her belt loop. Spencer stiffened at the presence of the dog, he knew she had one and he knew that German Shepherds were a common choice when it came to service dogs, but it didn't make him anymore comfortable.

His unease caught Layla's attention rather quickly. "Do big dogs make you uncomfortable?" She pulled Leo away from him gently, the dog did as she requested without any reserve. Spencer gulped slightly but forced a smile on his face.

"I'm okay, he wouldn't be a serves dog if he wasn't trained." He said it more to himself then to her.

"He's very sweet."

"Dogs generally don't like me." He said, his eyes still on the animal. Layla thought about her three other animals at home, all of them over 60 pounds. "I think it's because I can't communicate with them."

"You can talk to them." Layla said, "I bet you just haven't been around a dog long enough to know their ques and quirks." Spencer made a sound of disagreement. "Well, we'll have to work on that." She didn't give him any room to question it, if they were having a baby together, he would be around her animals. Layla scratched behind Leo's ear and let the conversation drop, but she didn't want to make Spencer super uncomfortable and had Leo walk on her opposite side.

The waiting room was a lot emptier then Layla would have thought. It had been packed the day she came for the blood test. She checked in while Spencer grabbed them two seats near the back corner of the room.

"I never got a chance to ask you how your cake turned out." Spencer said when she came back to him. Thinking about it made her laugh.

"That was by far, the biggest cake I've ever made." She said, crossing her leg over the other one and angling her body towards him. "I don't even know how I managed to move it after I was finished." She blew out a long breath of air, "but I had no idea what to do with it, I wasn't going to eat the whole thing and my grandfather couldn't do it, so I donated it to a homeless shelter that houses families with small kids. Figured it could make some kids feel better." She smiled, "But I got some pictures on my camera at home. I'll show you one day."

"Did you get to meet the kids that got it?"

"No, I had to go to work and then I had to take Grandpa to an appointment afterward. It's been a busy couple of weeks." She sighed, brushing her hair over her shoulder. "How's work been?" Spencer was surprised that they hadn't been called away before now, so it's been pretty uneventful.

"It's been rather uneventful. I've been working on some requested profiles from a few police departments around the country."

"Profiles are like…personality test results, right?"

"Um, kind of. When I'm looking over case, I look for things the unsub does or doesn't do, signatures, things that differentiate the unsub." Layla tilted her head to the side as she listened to him talk. He almost went into detail before a thought stopped him cold, did he really want to put a picture like that into her head? Most people lived blissful lives of ignorance, they didn't think about how the color of their hair might entice someone to the point that it would cost them their lives. "I, we, generally are able to narrow it down to age, race, gender, type of vehicle they drive and sometimes even occupation." The idea of that made Layla's head spin, she didn't understand how that was possible. She understood clues, she's seen enough crime dramas to know that people usually left behind enough evidence to get caught.

"That's….crazy- I don't mean that like its…-ah no, I mean it's amazing that you can do that."

"Humans are complex but if you can read the signs then they can be predictable and trackable. Once you understand why someone does something, this it becomes easier to know what they will do next."

Layla's thoughts drifted to her parents, the majority of her childhood was spent trying to predict her parents' reactions, their thoughts, whereabouts. Her mother was beyond predictable, Layla could set her watch by it. She went to the store every Monday at the same time, she wore the same type of clothes every day, she watched the same shows in the same rotation, everything Jasmine did, she did for a reason or in some type of repetition. Layla's therapist said Jasmine's behavior read like OCD, though she would have to meet Jasmine and speak with her to know for sure.

Layla's father on the other hand was almost unpredictable. He's a violent, yet functioning alcoholic, the booze never came out unless he was behind locked, closed doors. Once the door opened, he was a crisp, clean, and respectful member of society, a front pew kind of man. His appearance on her front porch was an inconstancy, she couldn't believe he would act like that in public, give her any physical reason to call him a bad father.

Layla was snapped out of her thoughts by Leo nudging her fingers. When she focused back on what was in front of her, she saw an analyzing look on Spencer's face. "You know you scratch at your wrist whenever you think of something you find unfavorable." He said once he knew her attention was back on him. She glanced down at her wrist automatically . "I'm guessing, at one point you used a rubber band."

"I…yeah…I did." She threaded her fingers through Leo's fur. "It didn't really work for me…" Spencer opened his mouth to ask her about it, wanting to know what made her upset so he could avoid doing it again in the future, but he was cut off by a nurse calling out Layla's name. They followed her in the back to a room with a sonogram machine.

"I just need to grab a little blood." She told Layla gently. Layla held out of her arm, needles didn't bother her much, but Spencer on the other hand had to look away. He was still in the process of avoiding relapse. He was about 8 months clean and he hadn't realized just how much a needle would affect him. Layla thankfully didn't notice his tension that time and he was able to compose himself before her attention turned back to him. "Alright, I'm going to go run this, now. If you could just lay back and relax, the doctor will be in to see you shortly." The nurse smiled at them and Layla did as requested. Layla instructed Leo to lay back behind the chair, so he wasn't in anyone's way.

"You're showing." Spencer said. Layla had taken off her jacket when she sat down and draped it over the back. Layla looked down to the bulging around her midriff.

"Yeah." She blew out a long breath, "if I'm already showing now, I'm going to be gigantic by the end of this." She shuttered at the thought of stretchmarks. "I've already looked up some pictures…no more crop tops for me." She said wistfully.

"What's a _crop top_?" She tilted her head at him and raised an eyebrow.

"You don't know what a crop top is?"

"No, am I supposed to know?"

"It's like a half shirt, it shows off your belly."

"Why would you wear a 'half shirt'?"

"Because they're cute, why do you exclusively wear button up shirts and sweaters?" She shot back, "you have no variety!"

"You've only seen me four times!"

"And that's all you've worn for each of those times. How am I supposed to think any different?"

"How did you turn this on me? We were talking about half shirts."

"Crop tops." She corrected. "And you questioned the point of wearing them, so I felt the need to question your lack of fashion diversity." _Fashion diversity,_ he mouthed the words just as the doctor came in.

"Miss Addington." The Doctor greeted, "is this 'dad'?" He asked, glancing to Spencer.

"Yes."

"Alright, great. I'm going to start off by saying your HCG levels the last time you came in were astronomically high for 8 weeks. At 500 thousand, the highest I've ever seen was at 300 thousand."

"Is that good or bad?" Layla asked.

"Well, we're going to take a peek inside and see what we've got going on." Layla glanced at Spencer who looked like he was thinking about a thousand different things all at once. "If you could do me a favor and lift your shirt up and unbutton your jeans." The tone of this voice helped calm her nerves slightly and she did as she was told. She glanced at Spencer again as she lifted up her shirt, she knew it was silly to be embarrassed, he was the one that got her pregnant, but it still made her face go red. He asked her a few questions about her symptoms, morning sickness, and any pain she's been experiencing before jumping into it.

"This might feel cold." And he wasn't joking, Layla jumped as he poured a generous amount of gel onto her stomach. He flipped on a switch to a machine and pressed the wand onto her skin. "Alright, if we can't see anything here, we'll do a transvaginal one." He said. Layla and Spencer couldn't see the screen and he assured them that once he got a good look at what was going on inside, he would switch their screen on.

Layla chewed on the inside of her cheek as she waited, watching the doctors face like a hawk. The expressions on his face looked slightly confused for a good few moments before turning into one of shock. Layla felt Spencer pull her hand into his, momentarily taking her attention, she couldn't tell if he was doing it for her benefit or his and she didn't want to ask.

"Do multiples run in either sides of your families?" He asked, Layla thought though all the family she's met.

"Um…two cousins that are twins." They were Lucy's, a boy and a girl, both of them a few years older than Layla.

"Not that I know of." Spencer answered. Layla looked to the doctor with wide eyes, already piecing together what he was insinuating. He pulled on a TV screen that was slightly behind his machine and turned it so the two of them could see it before turning it on. Layla couldn't make sense of the blurry picture and the blobs that took up the screen or the sound that was coming from the speakers.

"This is baby A." The Doctor pointed to the first blob, "Baby B," he pointed to the second one and Layla felt her heart thumping wildly in her chest as she looked at the last, unaccounted for blob. "This is baby C." Layla felt like she was frozen in place. _3? Three blobs equal 3 babies. 3 babies equal 30 fingers and 30 toes._ Leo stood up from behind the chair and came to his handler's side. It was the first time he noticed the dog and tried not to let his surprise show, even though the other two people in the room probably wouldn't have noticed if he suddenly broke out into song and dance.

Spencer was in a similar position, the only thing that kept him in focused was the death grip that Layla had on his hand. The doctor gave them both several minuets to absorb the information, moving the wand around to further check on them. "Are they healthy?" Spencer finally asked.

"They have good heartbeats, their sizes for 10 weeks gestation is a little on the low side but that is to be expected with triplets." The conversation and the sound of Leo's attention seeking noises brought Layla out of the fog she was in.

"Triplets?" The word sounded foreign on her lips.

"Yes mam."

"Three babies?"

"Yes." She turned her head to Spencer with wide eyes and saw that he too looked beyond shocked.

"That sound?" She gulped, she felt pressure building behind her eyes, "those are the hearts?" The doctor smiled at her.

"Yes, those are their hearts." She used her free hand to wipe at her eyes. "Would you like some pictures?"

000

Spencer spent the rest of their time there asking question after question. He wanted to know all the risks, everything from chances of genetic abnormalities to the likely hood of preterm labor and the effect that it could have on the babies. Layla let him go at it, he asked every question that Layla could think of and more. It quickly became clear that the doctor wasn't that familiar with triplet pregnancies. He said that he was going to have to recommend them to a high-risk facility that was proficient in pregnancies with multiples. Spencer accepted this wholeheartedly. He was used to people not being able to answer all his questions, but he found it unacceptable for the doctor overseeing Layla's pregnancy to answer him with 'I don't know." Spencer made sure Layla knew this when leaving the office.

"It's not his fault." She said, "he said this is his first time seeing a patient with triplets." Layla rested her hand over her stomach.

"Doesn't' matter." Spencer said.

"Like he said, he's recommending us to a specialist and I'm sure they'll be able to answer your questions. He said everything looked good." _Triplets_ It was so surreal. "Three, Spencer there are three of them!" She couldn't tell what emotion she was feeling. When she found out she was pregnant, she had been horrified, she couldn't be a mother, nothing about her would be good for a child. Then after Macy found out, she stayed with Layla long after the other two aunts left, and Macy really made Layla feel better about it. Now she was back to being horrified, but hearing their heartbeats made her want them. Seeing the blurry blobs take lose forms of moving babies after staring at them for awhile made her want them. They were real, not just a plus sign on a plastic stick.

Spencer didn't know what to say, he didn't know how to feel about it, to feel about them but the look on Layla's face when she was watching the screen made his day. He couldn't explain why he felt so strongly about her in the short amount of time he's been around her. He felt like it was something chemical, there's no way he could have such a strong emotional attachment so quickly. He barely knew her.

"Do you have to work today?" He asked her as they neared her car.

"No, I requested the day off. Do you?"

"I think I'm going to call out, Hotch won't mind." Spencer couldn't go back in after that. He needed to process it, and he didn't want to leave Layla. "We could go back to my apartment." He said.

"To talk. I mean." He added after her face went red, her thoughts going back to the last time she'd been in his apartment.

"Okay…do you have ice cream there? If not can we stop and get some?" She asked, opening the back door for Leo to hop inside.

"Are you allergic to peanuts too, or just tree nuts?" He asked, knowing that people who were sensitive to one type were at higher risk for the other.

"Just tree nuts. Peanuts are fair game."

"I have Peanut butter and chocolate chip at home." He said, and her face lit up.

"Yes!" She excitedly hopped into the driver's seat, Spencer climbed in next to her and directed her on how to get there.

 **Thank you guys so much for your reviews! Thank you for reading!**


	9. Chapter 9

Layla hadn't had a chance to look over Spencer's apartment the one time she was there. She had been too busy running out of it to admire Spencer's collection of books. Several huge bookshelves lined the walls, each one covered completely with books, some thicker then others some looked older while others were newer.

Layla sent Leo to a corner of the room, taking his vest off so he could relax. Spencer had been right about taking him out more often to make her feel more secure. She'd only had one other panic attack since that night and it happened after Lucy and Angela left. Macy and Elliot handled it, but it made Layla feel terrible that it ended up becoming about her, she hated that she had so little control over her emotions that when tough things happened, it turned into 'how will Layla handle it.' That morning should have been about Elliot and only Elliot. "I'm going to call my supervisor." Spencer's voice made her jump, she forgot her was there for a second.

"Are you sure you don't need to go back?" Layla asked, turning around to look at him.

"I have over a month of personal time saved up for the year, it doesn't roll over." He said. "It will only take a second." He gave her his famous forced smile, Layla had become quite accustomed to it, he would use it whenever he didn't know what to say. He gave Leo a fleeting look before moving into the kitchen area, his phone in his hand. Layla turned to back to the books, giving him some privacy.

Aaron answered on the second ring. "Agent Hotchner."

"Hey, it's Spencer…do you…do you need me for the rest of the day?" Spencer could hear how strained his voice sounded and he cursed himself slightly, knowing that Aaron would pick up on it.

"No, take as much time as you need." When Spencer had originally asked for a longer lunch break earlier that day, he had hoped he wasn't acting too out of character, though just asking for the time was out of character.

"Thanks." Spencer said awkwardly.

"Is everything alright?" Spencer looked to Layla who had picked up one of his textbooks and was flipping though the pages.

"Yes, yes everything is fine. I'll be back in the morning." Spencer said thanks once again before saying goodbye and hanging up the phone. He moved back towards the couch, pushing his phone into his pocket.

"Is this in Russian?" Layla asked once she heard him approaching. She turned around to face him, not realizing he was as close as he was, her hair hitting his shoulder as she turned. She had decided to wear it down that morning, softly curling the ends. "Sorry…" She pulled her hair over her shoulder. He didn't understand what she was apologizing for.

"Yes, its Russian." He said, "this whole shelf is Russian, that one's French, that's Italian…" he listed, pointing to each one in turn.

"Do you ever confuse them?" She asked. The idea of knowing so many languages and being able to keep them straight boggled her mind.

"No," he smiled, "I don't have any issue differentiating them. Do you speak any other languages?"

"No, I was really excited to take a second language in school, but my father called and made a huge ordeal out of them forcing students to take another language, he said that it was a way for them to _make us ashamed of our culture_ and that it would _encourage reverse racism."_ Layla scoffed. "Anyway, the school dropped it from my schedule." She shrugged.

"He believed that studying a different culture would encourage reverse racism?" The words sounded ludicrous on his tongue.

"Who knows what really goes on in that man's mind." She pushed the book back onto the shelf. "But God forbid if he didn't get his way." She sighed.

"What would happen if he didn't get his way?" Spencer asked. Layla looked up at his face, seeing that analyzing look on his face once again.

"It's okay," she said, "we came to talk about babies. I don't really want to go into my family issues. I feel like we always end up there. I don't really know what the right way to do this is. I mean, you and didn't know each other until almost three months ago, we had drunken sex, got pregnant and now have only really been talking a few weeks."

"Right." He said, not seeing where she was going with this.

"Obviously we're going to have to get to know one another rather quickly. We need to decide how we're going to…" she was trying to find the right way to explain it, "we're going to have to figure out how we want to raise them." She could see that she was confusing him still, "parenting styles." She clarified. A light clicked on in his mind, but he didn't have an answer for her, he didn't know the first thing about raising children.

"I…"

"And…we also need to decide what we're doing?"

" _What we're doing?"_ He asked.

"Yeah." He watched as her face went red, "like are we going to try dating or…" The color of his face quickly matched hers, "I just need to know what page we're on. It will make things less complicated in the future if we understand where each other are coming from." She added quickly. There was silence between them for a long moment.

"What do you want to do?" He asked her. Layla had been hoping he would be the one to answer that question.

"I…I don't see why we can't try…I mean like." She brushed her hand though her hair, "I don't know…" She blew out a long breath of air. "God I'm really awkward." She let out a dry laugh before taking a deep breath and squaring her shoulders. "Yes," she said, meeting his eyes, "I would like to try."

"I would like that too." Spencer wet his lips. She looked over his face, looking for any evidence that he was lying, she didn't find any.

000

"Wait, wait, wait." Layla said, sitting Indian style on Spencer's couch as they both picked at their bowls of ice cream. "you're telling me that you actually think, Penelope is better then Clytemnestra?"

"I think Penelope is better at handling tough situations by using her wits and not giving into her anger." Spencer explained.

"First of all, I love Penelope and I admire her crafty nature, but Clytemnestra was completely justified in her anger and actions, killing her husband was not 'giving into her anger', killing her husband avenged her daughters murder, which by Greek law, was encouraged."

"Agamemnon didn't have a choice when he sacrificed his daughter."

"Yes, he did." Layla waved her fork, shoeing his claim away like it was a fly.

"No, he had to give a worthy sacrifice in order to change the direction of the wind, so they could get to troy and win the war!"

"He could have taken his family and his happy ass right home and sat out of the war entirely."

"He made a pact, if he went against it, they would have come after him after the war to punish him." Spencer couldn't understand why she was having trouble grasping the plot.

"Well, if he had chosen his daughter, like a good father would have, they probably would have never won the war, and all died while he played house on his island, but no. He had to stroke his stupid ego, slash his own daughter's throat to the move the wind 2 goddamned degrees, win the war, come home 10 years later with his bitch Cassandra and expect his wife to be all happy about it. I'm sorry, no wait, I'm not sorry. And if I was Clytemnestra, I'd have killed him too."

"If that were the case, what would have happened to Odysseus? Penelope would have been forced to marry one of the suitors after his unavoidable death." Spencer said.

"I feel like Odysseus would have found his way out. He was a crafty SOB as well." Spencer looked at her like she had grown a second head, she gave Spencer a challenging look. It took everything in Layla to not crack up at the expression on his face. She took a large bite of Ice cream, smiling into the spoon.

"I would have thought you cared more about Odysseus."

"Why would you think that?"

"You named one of your dogs after his dog." Layla raised her eyebrows at him, she hadn't mentioned Argos to him. "You spoke to him while I was on the phone with you." She tilted her head slightly, trying to remember when she did.

"Really?"

"It was when you were going to Walmart to get cream for your icing." It dawned on her suddenly.

"Ohhh, and just because I named my dog after his, doesn't mean that I care more about that particular story then the others, I just happened to like that dog more then any of the other dogs." She shrugged.

They hadn't spoken about the pregnancy once in the 6 hours they've spent in his apartment. Layla was enjoying their little bubble, just the two of them not having to deal with any of the outside factors that would no doubt eventually impact their relationship. But after a while, Leo made his need to go outside obvious to them.

When Layla stood up, she had to pull her shirt back down from where it had bunched up around her stomach. The action brought back the reason they were there in the first place. "Have you told your grandfather yet?" Spencer asked her.

"No." She smoothed out the winkles in the fabric. "I was going to wait until after the appointment today….telling him I'm pregnant was already going to be difficult, now there's…there's three of them." She sighed, pulling at Leo's leash that had been laying over the back of the couch.

"Do you think he'll be upset?"

"I don't know, I don't think he will. He's never been upset with me before. Granted I don't really do anything that would make him feel that way, you know I work, hang out with my friends and take care of the house." She shrugged. Spencer could see her starting to go back to her timid, shy persona that he experienced the night they had dinner. "But this, this is different. I'll tell him tonight." She said, "I need to tell him before he can see for himself." She gestured to the growing bump underneath her shirt. "Are you going to tell your coworkers?"

"I don't know…" He said, "we don't really get to keep anything to ourselves." Layla could understand that. Privacy was very important to her as well. "They'll know something is different though."

"Well they are all profilers, right?" She smiled, she knew that Spencer was hyperaware of the changes in her tone and attitude, but he was respectful enough not to pressure her to talk about things she didn't want to speak about.

"Yeah, but we practically all live together with how often we're out of town. They do know about you though. Emily and J.J. saw you drop me off." Layla giggled softly, clipping the leash to Leo's collar. "Garcia was telling me yesterday that I have to bring you around soon."

"When's 'soon'." Spencer led her back down to the lobby and out of the building.

"They were planning on going out to the bar…the one where you and I met at, but." He glanced down to her stomach underneath her jacket and shirt.

"Yeah, the bar isn't the best place for me at the moment."

"I can change it to dinner." He said. Layla bit the inside of her cheek.

"Just tell me when. I'll need to request off of work and stuff. They later the notice, the more attitude my bosses give me." She said. "Do you think you'll be able to make it to the next doctor's appointment?" Layla had been a little surprised that scheduled her so soon. Both of Layla's girl friends, Marissa and Linda, had already gone through pregnancy, and neither of them ever had appointments so close, granted neither of them had a multiple pregnancy.

"I'll do my best." He said, but he couldn't promise anything. Layla nodded, watching as Leo sniffed at a bush on the ground. They didn't talk for a long time, but unlike the silence that usually resided between them, this wasn't awkward. Layla found the rhythmic sounds of his footfalls to be relaxing and reassuring, that was until she felt the sound of her phone buzzing in her jacket pocket.

The unfamiliar number caused her heart to speed up. She debated on answering it, knowing that there was a very real chance the number belonged to her parents. She had forgotten about her father's court hearing today up until this point.

"What is it?" Spencer asked, looking over at the phone while her hand shook, her fingers gripping onto the phone tight enough for her fingers to turn white. "Layla." Leo came up to her side whining, pushing his body between Layla and Spencer. Leo nuzzled her side and when that didn't grab her attention, he jumped up on her, knocking the phone from her hand. Spencer picked it up but by the time he got it, the call went to voicemail. Leo jumping on her broke her out of her little trance and she found herself ridged, her breath coming in quick bursts, pushing against the painful constriction in her chest. "Layla." Spencer grabbed onto her shoulders gently.

"I…" She looked to the phone in Spencer's hand. "I'm sorry." She pulled it out of his grip. "I should go."

"No, Layla, it's fine." He said quickly, "let's just finish walking Leo, okay? Then we can go get dinner." Layla shook her head, licking her lips. She glanced over her shoulder, the hair on the back of her neck standing on end, something just didn't feel right to her. Leo pushed at her again, whining, shoving his snout between her nails and her wrist as she clawed at the skin.

"I…I really need to go home; my grandfather is probably getting worried…thank you for coming to the appointment with me- and for the ice-cream." She forced her lips to turn upward, in what was, by definition, a smile.

"Layla," Spencer said gently, "why don't we go back to my apartment?" He gently tried to turn her back into the direction of his building when the phone started to ring again. She jumped. It was the same number as before. "Layla, do you know who's calling?"

"I, I, I, I don't know." The phone cut off quickly. "Its probably just my parents. I'm overreacting, its fine." The screen displayed the first voicemail. Layla bit her lip hard enough to cut though the skin and for blood to trickle out.

"Do you mind if I listen to the voicemail?" Spencer asked. She wordlessly passed the phone to him. It was unlocked, and he didn't have any issues navigating to the voicemail.

" _Answer your damn phone when I call you."_ A man's voice ground out from the speakers next to Spencer's ear, " _It's the least you can fucking do after getting me arrested. If you think your mother and I will let this behavior go uncorrected you are sadly mistaken. I fully expect you to drop the charges with the police and come home so you can properly apologize. The blatant disrespect you have for your parents, especially your mother, is truly appalling. I will see you tonight."_ And he hung up. Spencer furrowed his eyebrows as he handed the phone back to Layla.

"Save that message and give it to your lawyer." He said. Spencer didn't know the whole story between Layla and her parents, but he felt like he knew Layla enough that she wouldn't just call the police and have someone arrested without a good reason.

The phone started ringing again, "Layla, what was he arrested for?"

"Trespassing and public intoxication."

"Trespassing?"

"He came to my grandfather's house while he was still in the hospital. He was pounding on the door and cursing, so I called the police. My grandfather called the police the last time he came and had him trespassed, so he could get into more trouble if he came back. I…today was his court hearing but I completely forgot about it because of everything going on."

"You didn't charge him with harassment?"

"I just wanted him to leave, and I wanted the cops to leave, I don't know anything about legal-" Leo barked at her, Spencer led her back to his building, the dog barking was starting to grad the attention of passers biers. They had barely made it five minutes away before all of this happened.

"Layla, if you're trying to get a restraining order, you should start with a harassment report so there's a paper trail."

"My lawyer is sending out a…cease and desist letter."

"For the harassment?"

"Yes, I think that's what he put. It might have been for contacting me all together. I went no contact when I turned 18." She was calming down as they walked, her hand brushing Leo's head every few seconds. "When my grandfather finally won custody, I had been floating around in foster care at that point, the state made me have mandatory supervised visits with them. My Aunt Lucy was the one that supervised them."

"Do you think he will do anything when he gets the letter?"

"I don't know, he can be unpredictable sometimes. I know he talked awfully about me to anyone who will listen, make himself out to be the victim. My mom just goes along with everything he says, she doesn't have any mind of her own. Everything she does or thinks gets approved by him before anyone else gets to see it." Alarm bells were going off in Spencer's brain. He tried to remind himself that this man, her father, had limited access to her. From her explanation of her patterns, she was almost always with someone else, that and she had a huge German Shepheard with her almost all the time. But it didn't help that she's already admitted that one of her aunts that has access to her house has tried to essentially poison her.

He didn't have anything to tell her, she was already going thought the necessary channels to make it stop, but he didn't want there to be any escalation and he was worried that if they found out about the babies, escalation was exactly what they would be seeing.

"I should really go home." Layla said, rubbing her hand up and down her arm. "I need to make dinner for my grandpa."

"I don't like the idea of you driving home."

"I'll be fine, I'm calm enough now, and I'll put my phone on silent." She said.

"Layla-"

"Really Spencer." Her tone was assuring, "I'll be fine, I'll even text you when I get home." She moved her hand from her arm to his shoulder. She smiled softly, but it was strained around the edges. "Thank you for coming to the appointment with me."

"I…of course." He frowned. He glanced down at Leo who was still pressing up against Layla, telling Spencer she wasn't as calm as she was trying to portray. "Layla, are you sure you're good to drive?"

"I'm sure." She said, "why don't you call me after you get off of work tomorrow if you're still in town. We can go grab dinner." Spencer was about to answer her, but she stood up on her tip-toes and pressed her lips against his. It took him by surprise and by the time he realized what was happening and went to react, she was already pulling away. "Thank you, again." She smiled, before calling Leo softly and pulling him toward her car. What Spencer couldn't see was her eyes filling with tears that she had been desperately trying to hold back, her couldn't see her hands begin to uncontrollably shake, causing her to drop her keys onto the floorboard three times before she managed to get them into the ignition.

Leo was nuzzling her shoulder from the backseat while she pulled out of the parking lot. She drove down the road before turning into the parking lot of an abandoned building before putting the car in park and just let herself go.

 **Thank you guys for all your reviews. I'm so glad you guys are enjoying the story. How do you think the team will react to Spencer's news?**


	10. Chapter 10

Layla made it home around 8:30, an hour after she left Spencer's. She snuck into the house as quietly as she could and hurried upstairs. It wasn't that difficult due to Elliot having some of his friends over. The old men and their wives were sitting around the parlor, talking about old people things.

She knew that Spencer was probably a little worried, so she texted him that she made it home before turning her phone off completely. She was still getting text messages and phone calls from her parents. At first, she thought it was just her father until her mother called and left a message as well. Jasmine also sent a text about how all she wanted for her birthday that year was for their family to be back together, for everything to go back to the way it was. Layla, for the first time ever, scoffed at the communication. How could Layla be so pathetic to let these people ruin everything good in her life. She had been having a great day with Spencer, only for a mere phone call, they weren't even physically there, to send her into hysterics. How could she expect herself to take care of three babies when she couldn't even take care of herself.

Layla frustratedly picked up the clothes she had left lying around in her room, tossing them into the hamper next to the door. Her bathroom was pretty clean, aside from more clothes on the floor. The mirror wasn't her friend at that moment. Her hair was sticking up in places where it shouldn't be, her eyes were puffy and bright red. Her mascara had bled down her face in dramatic, black tear tracks, smearing where she had wiped the tears away. She turned away in disgust.

She pulled off her jacket, laying it over the bathroom counter, as it laid down, she saw the corner of the strip of pictures from the sonogram. The paper felt thin in between her fingers as she pulled it to from the fabric. She couldn't make out that they were babies from the pictures, they just looked like little beans chilling out in her uterus, but it made her smile either way. She moved back into her bedroom and set the strip down onto her nightstand.

She decided she'd get them a little bigger and frame them, maybe start a scrap book sort of thing. Maybe they would appreciate it when they were older. Layla didn't have any baby pictures or scrapbooks to look though. The only pictures Layla had from childhood were the yearly school photos, and Christmas card covers that her parents sent the rest of the family to make it look like they were the perfect family. Layla wasn't going to let that happen this time around. These kids would have happy and healthy childhoods, it didn't matter what happened, she wouldn't tolerate anything less.

This was her train of thought as she showered, the hot water giving her the bravado to come up with a plan. She would tell Elliot tonight, like she had originally planned, she'd probably tell her uncle when he came to visit for this 'cookout', but that was it, everyone else could find out when she was no longer able to hide it, it wasn't going to be easy, but she was going to give it her all. Hopefully the restraining order would go though, and it would make her parents think twice about harassing her. Those were the only things that she could think of at the moment, her thoughts were scattered and tented with a little too much anger to make much sense.

She turned the showerhead off about 20 minutes later, stepping into a pare of sweat pants and a black tank top, she tucked the strip of pictures into her pocket before going down stairs. There were still some people left, but it looked like they were on their way out. Layla got to work on some spaghetti, it was quick, easy and didn't take a lot of forethought. Elliot came into the kitchen after the last couple left.

"How was work?" Elliot asked, sinking down into a kitchen chair. Layla chewed on the inside of her cheek, not turning around from the stove.

"I uh…" even though she felt like shit and it would never be a good time to tell him, she couldn't go back on her plan so soon. "I didn't have to work today." She said. "I had a doctor's appointment." She poured the noodles into the boiling water and grabbed the cullender from inside the cabinet before setting it down in the sink.

"Is everything alright?" Elliot had all of her counselor appointments on a calendar in his office, so he wouldn't schedule anything at the same time, he didn't remember her having one for today. "I thought your next appointment was Friday."

"Not that kind of appointment." She sighed, turning around and leaning against the counter. She crossed her arms over her chest and admired the grain of the dark wood flooring. "I, um…" She blew out a long breath of air. "I'm pregnant." She said, the words were almost painful coming out of her mouth. She saw the look of confusion on his face, confusion and shock. Out of everything that could have come out of her mouth, Elliot would have never guessed pregnancy, it wasn't even in the realm of possibility as far as he was concerned. He opened his mouth and closed it several times, he couldn't think of anything to say, he hadn't ever thought of this situation or how he would handle it if it did happen.

"Are you sure?" It was the only thing that came to mind as an appropriate response.

"I had a blood test done two weeks ago and I had a sonogram today." She watched his face closely, looking for anything that would point to him being upset or angry. His face held an array of emotions, and she couldn't pick out any one thing from the display.

"The father?"

"Remember the guy I met at the bar?" She ran her hand though her wet hair, "I…I had gotten really drunk and I don't really remember how it happened but…it happened."

"Does he know?"

"Yeah, he went with me to the appointment today." It felt good to get if off her chest, to know that she didn't have to hide it from him anymore. It felt weird to keep something from him.

"So, he's taking responsibility?"

"Yes, he's…he's taking responsibility." She took another deep breath, moving to the table and sitting down across from him. "I just, this wasn't supposed to happen, I shouldn't- I don't even remember going home with him…but I did and now I'm in this mess and it couldn't have happened at worse time…but he's supper sweet and nice and he's…"She held her head up on the palm of her hands.

"Layla, you understand that if you don't feel ready for this, you do have options."

"I can't get an abortion, I already thought about that, and Spencer doesn't want me to get one either." She licked her lips, lifting her eyes briefly to look at him. He didn't look disappointed, or angry. She couldn't read any emotion on his face. "I'm scared." She admitted, "I don't know how my parents are going to react when they find out, and they will find out, and I don't want to…" She trailed off, not wanting to go into that much detail.

"You don't want to what?" He asked.

"I…This time should be about you." She said, brushing her hair out of her face, "all you do is worry about me and focus on me and you really need to take care of yourself right now…I don't want to take the attention off of you at all."

"Layla don't worry about your parents, we're going to get that all taken care of. And don't worry about me, I can take care of myself, I have for a long time." He assured, trying to get her to meet his gaze. "How far along are you?"

"10 weeks."

"See, it happened before I was even diagnosed." She still wouldn't meet his eyes. "Layla look at me."

"I'll support you no matter what you decide to do." She stood up to check on the food. "This guy, Spencer. Have you and him come up with any kind of plan? Like who's paying for what? Babies are expensive."

"No, we haven't talked about that." She said softly, straining the noodles. "I think we're both still a little in shock. The sonogram…" She took another deep breath. "there's more then one baby." She stirred the sauce. "Triplets, my doctor is referring us to a specialist while I still see him once every two weeks." When she turned around from the stove, she saw that look of serious shock on his face, he couldn't hide it.

Layla pulled the pictures out of her pocket and handed them to him. From the look on his face, she knew that he didn't quite understand what he was looking at, not that she could really blame him. She moved to stand behind him, her hands crossed tightly over her chest. After a few moments she the death grip on her arm go and reached over his shoulder. "That's baby A, he...um she? They are the biggest…" She moved to the one on the bottom of the frame, "baby C, just a little smaller then A, and then B. The smallest." She stuttered though the sentence. "The doctor said they had good heartbeats and they looked healthy." Elliot looked up at her over his shoulder.

"Three?"

"Three." She confirmed. His face basically mirrored how she felt while she was at the doctor's office. Elliot didn't know what to tell her. She looked calm, somewhat scatterbrained, but she was like that on a normal day. It was clear to him that she had accepted what was happening.

"Have you told anyone else?"

"Just Marissa, Aunt Macy and Spencer, and now you. I don't really want to tell anyone else. Not until I absolutely have to." She said, moving back to the stove to stir the sauce again. "Everyone else will probably tell my parents and I don't want them to know anytime soon." Layla was surprised by how good it felt to tell Elliot, she was shocked that she was able to keep herself composed enough to get though everything. It was a step forward.

"I understand." Elliot said, he loved all of his children dearly and it had been very difficult to cut off Jasmine, especially after losing his wife, at the time he had to continually remind himself that Jasmine could take care of herself, she made the abundantly clear, his debt to her as a father was paid in full the second she became a independent member of society, Layla on the other hand, didn't have anyone in her corner, she needed support that her parents refused to provide whilst going out of their way to strip her of any support she managed to gain. Elliot didn't know where he went wrong with Jasmine, but he did, and he needed to pick up the pieces they had broken off his granddaughter. He couldn't bring himself to cut off his other daughters though, even though they were just as terrible to Layla, he couldn't handle it. He justified it by calling them out when they were mean.

"I won't tell anyone unless you give me the express permission to do so." He said. "And I know that Macy won't either." Layla nodded.

"Thank you." Layla made his plate and set it down in front of him. She made her own and sat down again.

"Three babies…" He shook his head in disbelief. "One baby is hard enough, if I'm remembering correctly."

"Yeah…" She sighed, "I'm sure it won't be easy. But it is what it is and all I can do is try and make the best of it."

000

The following morning, Spencer went into the work with the intention to act like everything was normal, that wasn't what happened. He hadn't been able to sleep the night before until about 5:30, which caused him to sleep through his alarm and he ended up being late for the subway and had to hail a cab, only to realize he had left his wallet, the last place he could remember having it was Layla's car, it must have fallen out of his pocket, then it started to rain so his hair was stuck to his face and neck and his clothes were soaked. He hadn't even had enough time to make himself coffee for the commute, overall, today just wasn't his day.

When he finally made it to work, he changed into a pair of clothes he had in his emergency go bag before heading to get a cup of coffee, he sent Layla a text about the wallet on his way. Morgan seemed to have been waiting for him at the coffee pot. "You good?" He asked casually. Spencer nodded, jumping 8 packets of sugar into his mug before drowning the bitter liquid in creamer. He shook his wet hair out of his eyes and tasted the coffee. Morgan could tell that pushing anything probably wouldn't end well. Garcia didn't have that same foresight.

"What happened to you yesterday?" The only thing that had kept her from calling him was J.J. telling her to give him some space. Spencer looked at her like a deer caught in headlights.

"Doctors appointment." He answered. It wasn't a lie, but he couldn't just tell her that he hadn't been doing anything, it would be quite obvious that he was lying.

"Are you okay?" She worried, he didn't look as bad as he had a few months before. He looked tired but that was about it.

"I'm fine." He brushed past the two of them and moved to his desk. Morgan and Garcia shared a look before Morgan followed behind at a comfortable distance. Spencer sat in the chair, and tired to open the files on his desk with a clear head and give it all his attention, but the second he opened the file and was greeted with a picture of a dead toddler, he found himself closing it.

Pretty soon he would have three toddlers running around. How would he be able to protect them from things like that? From serial killers and sociopaths and sadists. He knew the statistics and the chances of them getting targeted, but those numbers rose higher when concerning his line of work.

He ran his hand down his face, trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes and tried to push Layla and their growing children out of his mind, but it didn't help with how Layla left the night before. She did text him, and that took away most of his worry, but she didn't respond to him when he texted her back. He tried to assure himself that she was probably avoiding her phone due to the constant phone calls that were coming in.

"Pretty boy…" Morgan watched the younger agent sigh and rub his temples. "How much sleep did you get last night?"

"An hour."

"An hour?" Morgan wanted to make a late-night joke but the look on Spencer's face made him think better about it. "Does it have anything to do with Layla?" Spencer's head shot up.

"Why would you think that?"

"Because she's the only thing that's changed in your life recently, that I know of at least. What happened? Did you two get in a fight or something?"

"No…." Spencer said, he looked around the bullpen, noticing Emily and J.J. over by the coffee pot with Garcia. "I…" He huffed again. "Layla's pregnant." He said, he needed someone to talk to. Needed someone else to know. Morgan nearly spit up his coffee.

"She's what? No, Reid! First rule of a one-night stand is protection! You double bag that shit man." Spencer frowned at his wording, it didn't make sense.

"I don't remember if we did or not."

"Obviously you didn't! Are you sure it's yours? I know you like her but sometimes, girls mess around and pin it on the dude that's the best off."

"Yes," Spencer said carefully, "I'm sure, all of her number match up and I believe her."

"Why do you believe her?"

"Because I'm pretty sure she's really bad at lying. You can read all of her emotions on her face like a book. She also doesn't have the self confidence to sleep around."

"She slept with you." Morgan pointed out, "girls are sneaky man."

"I believe her." Spencer said more forcefully. "I'll get a paternity test after they're born…but I can't just treat her like they aren't until then, I need to be there unless I have proof that they aren't mine."

"They? As in you don't know the gender yet or as in more then one?" Morgan leaned back in his chair, his brain not being able to grasp the information provided. Reid? The kid having a kid? It was just unreal, he couldn't picture it. Spencer mumbled something under his breath. "Huh?"

"Three." He repeated, his voice rising slightly. "There's three of them."

0000

After telling Morgan about the pregnancy, Spencer was able to relax a little bit. Morgan on the other hand was trying to wrap his head around it. Spencer with a baby? Spencer with three babies? It was freaking weird.

After about an hour into paperwork, Spencer's phone vibrated, Layla name and a text filling the screen. _I found it._ She messaged in reference to the wallet, it vibrated after another second, _I pass you on my way to work, I can come drop it off._ She added.

 _It's okay, I can get it after work._ Spencer responded.

 _What if you have to leave, wouldn't you need it. I won't be able to bring it after I get to work. It's fine really, I'll leave a little earlier. I don't have to be there until 12:30 anyway._ Spencer frowned.

 _Alright._ He sent back.

"That her?" Morgan questioned.

"I left my wallet in her car, she's going to bring it in a few hours." Spencer said.

"Your girlfriend?" Emily questioned in a teasing manner, she had joined them about half an hour ago. Spencer's face reddened.

"She's not my…" He would have said she wasn't his girlfriend but was that true? She said she wanted to try dating, but did that mean they were together? Or did they need to have another conversation to make that official? Or was he just overthinking it and they were together?

"You're thinking awfully hard over there." Morgan said.

"She's not your what?" Emily chuckled, slightly enjoying the embarrassed look on his face.

"Leave him alone guys." J.J. said, setting a pile of case folders down on Morgan's desk before dividing them up amongst the agents.

"She's coming here though." Emily said. J.J. raised her eyebrows.

"She's dropping off my wallet, I left it in her car." He said, eagerly taking the files, hoping that they would drop it. Emily took pity on Spencer and settled with giving J.J. a look. Morgan did to, knowing there was a lot more going on between Spencer and Layla.

They left him alone after that, all of them catching up on paperwork that they knew would overwhelm them again the second they got back from another case. It was a never-ending cycle. Spencer's eyes were hurting after an hour and he was developing a rather painful headache. He attributed this to his lack of sleep, add in the level of stress he was currently experiencing, it was no question as to why he wasn't feeling good.

Layla texted him at about 11:30, and instead of having them send her up, he decided to meet her down in the lobby. He didn't think she would appreciate getting bombarded by his coworkers and he knew she wasn't going to be able to stay for long. She could meet them when she was ready, well when both of them were ready. It wasn't hard to find her when he got off the elevator. She was the only one that wasn't in a suit.

"Hey!" She smiled at him, her smile dimming when she saw the bags under his eyes and messy hair. She herself wasn't feeling that well, she'd spent the majority of her morning bent over the toilet, throwing up her dinner from the night before. She pulled her purse from underneath her arm and dug around in it for a few seconds before pulling out the wallet.

"Hi." Spencer took the wallet.

"You look exhausted." She said.

"I…uh. Didn't get much sleep last night." He scratched the back of his neck. She gave him a sympathetic look.

"Was it…was it the thing?" She glanced around, knowing that he probably wasn't going around and telling all his coworkers just yet. He automatically looked down to her stomach. He could barely make out the bulge underneath her navy-blue and white striped skirt and matching navy-blue sleeveless blouse she had tucked inside.

"No…yes. I don't know." His eyes didn't move. "Did you know that triplets happen in 1 in 5000 conceptions. It used to be 10,000 but after IVF, it has become far more common, even still, only 1/3 of them occur naturally without the help of any fertility drugs or services."

"I knew they weren't common." Layla answered, readjusting the strap of her purse, "but no, I didn't…I was reading online last night about…I guess what to expect. I'm a little worried about how many triplets are born with really low birth weights and how long they're going to have to stay in the NICU." She sighed.

"We're just going to have to keep on top of everything, make sure the doctors are on top of everything." He said. Layla nodded, rubbing her arm like she was cold, her eyes looking at the ground. "How are you feeling? I probably shouldn't have let you drive home last night."

"I'm fine." She took a deep breath, "after I texted you, I turned my phone off and took a really hot shower, which always helps."

"Stress isn't good for the babies either."

"I know, but there's honestly not much else I can do besides what I'm already doing. I'm sending the text messages to my lawyer today after work. He told me not to block them so he can keep building enough evidence for a harassment charge."

"Why don't you leave that phone with him so they can keep calling, but you get a new phone number, so you don't have to listen to it."

"We don't have enough money coming in for a whole new phone plan." Just thinking about money gave Layla a headache. All of Elliot's social security went towards his insurance and any left-over hospital bills. Layla was the one paying all the bills with her entry level waitressing job.

"I'll pay for it."

"No, Spencer, you really don't have to do that, I'm fine, I'll be okay." Spencer frowned.

"You said that your father showed up to your house-"

"It's only happened twice, and once the Lawyer starts putting some pressure on them, I'm almost positive they'll leave me alone in person. They'll probably still call but…"

"Or it could cause them to escalate."

"I think you're a little paranoid due to the nature of your job. There isn't anything special about me or my situation."

"It's not about being special Layla-"

"I should really get to work, and I don't want to distract you." Spencer could see the beginning of anxiety starting to take control.

"Layal…" He glanced around, making sure no one had noticed her presence, "why don't you have Leo with you?"

"I don't take him to work with me. It's just not sanitary and I'm usually fine at work." She blew out a deep breath. "I'm okay, really." She pulled at the ends of her hair, twirling it slightly. "I…I'm fine." She forced a smile. "I really should be going though. Maybe you could call me when you get off if you're still in town?"

"Okay, but-" She kissed him on the cheek.

"Okay, talk to you later." She almost ran away from him.

00000 Five Days Later 00000

Spencer and Layla spoke briefly every day. Sometimes their conversations would extend for an hour or two, other times they were exchange a few text messages throughout the entire day. Layla found it easier to talk to him over the phone. Maybe it was because when they were together, it felt like he was reading into every little thing she did, but on the phones, it was easier to keep her emotions and thoughts in check.

Lucy planned her family BBQ for a month out, giving everyone time to request off of work or make the necessary travel arrangements. Layla was a little paranoid, she already had to get new clothes and she had no idea how much bigger she was going to get between then and now. Elliot was more than supportive though. He made it clear to both Lucy and Angela that they needed to call or text before they came over, making it seem like he was never home and that it would be a waste of their time. Work was starting to get difficult considering they didn't make the uniform in any other sizes then extra small, that and the smell of the food was starting to make Layla even more sick than usual.

Layla did tell her other friends though.

"You're what?" Linda's house wasn't big, just a tiny little two bedroom but it was the main gathering spot for the adults. It used to be Layla's, but they felt bad about keeping her grandfather up sometimes, so they moved locations. You could have heard a pin drop.

"I'm pregnant." Layla had come to terms with it, and since the one person she'd been worried about already knew, telling other people, especially her friends, didn't seem like such a huge hurtle. Linda squealed and the look on Noah's face told Layla that Marissa probably already let the cat out of the bag on that one. Josh laughed out loud, while Linda squealed.

"Pregnant? Like had sex? With who?" Josh asked. Noah chuckled but covered it up with a cough. Linda's hand moved quickly as she used it to smack Josh upside the head.

"Layla is a catch, and anyone would be lucky to have her." Marissa didn't bother covering up her laughing as Josh rubbed the side of his head.

"I didn't say she wasn't, I just find it hard to believe that Layla would be sleeping with anyone."

"He's right though." Noah agreed, "Layla isn't exactly the poster child for sleeping around and she probably would have told us if she was dating someone."

"Yep, lets just talk about her like she's not right here." Marissa said, crossing her legs and giving her husband a dirty look. Noah shrugged, not feeling bad in the slightest.

"It's fine Marissa. And all of you are right, and I did have a one-night stand, well I guess it's not really a one-night stand anymore, but, his name is Spencer and he's staying." It felt weird for her to be talking about another person like that. She's dated before, right around the time that she went to live with her grandfather, but she quickly realized that she hadn't been in the best mind-frame for dating and broke things off.

"Marissa, have you though about anything for the baby shower?" Linda asked.

"I think it's a little early to be planning a baby shower…" Layla said, looking between her two friends.

"No, its not," Linda said, "the sooner we start planning, the better it will turn out, you're not going to have to worry about a thing. The only thing you'll have to do is show up and open presents," Layla had a feeling that Linda would go straight into party planning mode. It didn't help that her family owned an event coordinating business . "Oh my god," Linda clapped excitedly, "you should have an gender reveal party to!"

"I don't know…."

"Have you had a sonogram yet? How far alone are you? I thought you were gaining weight, but I didn't want to say anything. You're just so tiny."

"Um, almost 11 weeks." Layla reached into her purse she had siting next to her feet on the floor, digging around inside for the photo strip. Handing it off to Linda when she found it.

"Oh my god! There's three of them?"

 **Thank you guys for all your reviews! Thank you for reading, i hope you all are enjoying it!**


	11. Chapter 11

Layla wasn't sure what woke her up, but something did. She propped herself up on her elbow, squinting her eyes at the clock on her bedside table, 2:45. Frowning, Layla patted the bed for Sirius; the dog never left the mattress until she did. He was curled up on the left edge, stirring slightly at her touch.

She turned on the lamp that sat next to the clock, giving her eyes a moment to adjust before looking for the other three dogs that normally slept somewhere in her room. None of them were there and her bedroom door was wide open. Layla tossed the blankets off, the cool air picking at the bare skin of her legs, her sleeping shorts didn't do much to keep out the cold. The second her feet hit the ground, she heard her name being called down stairs.

She turned on the lights as she went, not liking the idea of walking through the house while it was completely dark. When she reached the bottom of the steps, she heard her name called again, this time it was easy to tell it was her grandfather's voice and she found herself moving faster.

He was on the kitchen floor, pain evident on his face, "Grandpa!" She crouched down next to him, touching his arm, she didn't know what she was supposed to do, panic was eating at the pit in her stomach. "What happened?" The other three dogs were whining at him, Leo licking his arm. Argos was barking a few feet away, pacing back and forth after every three barks or so. Orion was crouched down next to Elliot.

"I…" He grimaced, he was on his back, his hand gripping his hip, "I tripped over the…I dropped the lid to the container and when I went to grab it, I fell over."

"Can you get up?" She pressed her fingers where he was holding onto his leg and he sucked in a sharp breath. "Did you break it?"

"I don't know." He tried to sit up, Layla grabbed onto his arm, doing her best to steady him as moved. He managed to lean up against the oven, his breath coming out in quick, uneven breaths. "This is as far as I'm going." Layla pushed her hair behind her ear, her hands shaking.

"I'll call an ambulance." She stood up quickly, moving to grab the landline from the receiver on the counter.

"I don't need an ambulance."

"If you can't get up, then you need to go to the hospital." She nearly dropped the phone as she tried to dial the numbers.

"Layla-"

"You're going to the hospital." She said it, her tone left him to room to fight with her. "Y- I can't, you're going, and a doctor is going to tell me that you're okay." He was silent, he tired to pull himself up with the counter, but the pain forced him back down, "stop pushing yourself, they'll get you ou-" She was cut off by the phone operator.

000

Layla managed to lock the dogs upstairs, blocking off the staircase at the top so they couldn't come down and try to eat the paramedics. Layla did her best to make Elliot as comfortable as possible while they waited. There wasn't anything she could do for his pain, but he drank some water while she got all his things together.

The paramedics were really nice. They got him up on a stretcher without any difficulty. It was difficult for Layla to not climb into the ambulance with him, but she needed to let the dogs out and drive herself there, the last thing she needed was to be stranded at the hospital with no ride home. She did send a text to Macy and he other two aunts about what happened but wasn't expecting any of them to see it before the morning.

When she got to the hospital, they had already taken him back, for the first time, the emergency room wasn't nearly that busy.

"Its broken." Elliot told her when she made it to his bed. They were surrounded by several over beds, the only thing separating them were curtains. Layla frowned.

"How bad?"

"Just a crack, it'll heal on its own." He seemed a lot less irritable, she guessed they gave him some pain medicine. It calmed her down when she heard the nurses treating it like a common injury, granted old people braking their hip is a pretty common occurrence.

It took about two hours for them to move him to his own room and by that time, they kicked Layla out and told her to come back during visiting hours. She didn't put up much of a fight, he needed to get some sleep. She sent another text, updating them so they wouldn't freak out in the morning, making sure to include the times for visiting hours, as she left.

The hospital was quiet, but it wasn't silent. There were distant beeps, the soft footfalls of the nurses as they did their rounds. Layla smiled at them as she walked past, and she kept that smile until she walked out of the emergency room and saw both Lucy and Angela walking up from their cars.

They were talking together, not paying that much attention to what was going on in front of them. Layla had a brief thought about approaching them but quickly thought better. In her haste to leave the house after the paramedics took him away, she hadn't given any thought to what she was wearing. She had traded her sleeping shorts for a pair of leggings and put a bra on underneath her spaghetti strapped tank-top, making her ever expanding baby-bump on full display. She wouldn't have been that worried about it, it really wasn't that big, but the regulars at the restaurant had been making comments and asking questions, wanting to know her due date, basic pregnancy things, so she knew it was obvious. The last thing she needed tonight, well this morning, was her two harpy aunts to find out.

Layla moved off to the side, trying to make a wide ark around them so they couldn't even see her in their peripheral vision. If she managed to go unnoticed, she probably had five minutes to get into her car and leave before they got kicked out by the hospital staff.

Layla wasn't that lucky, Angela happened to look in her direction as they crossed the street from where parking ended, probably not wanting to get hit by a car in the chance that one was coming at that moment in time.

"Layla!" Layla froze like a deer caught in headlights. She debated just running for her car, but she hadn't ever been able to outright disobey someone. It was something she was working on, but her head wasn't anywhere near clear enough for her to remind herself that she was an adult, and no one should have that power over her unless they signed her paycheck. Layla took a deep breath and walked over to where they were. "What happened?" Angela was far easier to deal with then Lucy, she didn't seem to be outright awful, it was only when Lacy took the lead that her skin peeled back, and her sour face shined through.

"Grandpa got up to get something to drink and he fell. The doctor said he cracked his hip bone, he'll be fine." Layla crossed her arms under her chest, hoping that they wouldn't pay her midsection to much attention.

"Where are you going? You're just going to leave him in the hospital by himself?" Lucy's voice was cold.

"The told me to come back during visiting hours." Layla answered her calmly. "He's getting some sleep." Lucy's frown seemed to etch itself deeper in her face.

"You mean you left."

"They-"

"Do you think I'm stupid Layla, they let family stay. They let me stay with my son the entire time he was here, _they_ did not tell you to do anything." Layla's eyebrows furrowed, having been in the hospital herself as a child, she understood the policy for minors, but her grandfather wasn't a minor, he was an adult and adults had to wait until visiting hours to see their family. The only exceptions this hospital made were for patients on their deathbed and a broken hip wasn't going to kill him.

"Pediatrics are different-" Layla started.

"You know what, you go ahead and go home. We'll stay with him since it's such a hassle for you to take the time." Layla found herself growing frustrated, she really wasn't in the mood, not after only having three hours of sleep.

"They're not going to let you in." She said simply before moving to walk away. Lucy grabbed her arm.

"Don't walk away from me." She said, her nails digging into Layla's skin. Layla froze, closing her eyes and took a deep breath, not looking at the woman.

"Let me go please." Layla said softly.

"Turn around and look at me." Lucy said it, her tone resembling that of a mother scolding her child. Layla did as she was told, her eyes wide. Angela gasped, her eyes on Layla's stomach, Layla hadn't even noticed it, but her free hand had wrapped over her stomach. Lucy looked to Angela and followed her gaze to Layla's slightly protruding stomach. Lucy's grip on her arm only seemed to tighten as a look of disgust took over her face. Layla noticed the change in tone, but she didn't feel the anger that came over Lucy until the feeling of the backside of Lucy's left hand connected with Layla's face. The force caused Layla to stumble back, Lucy let go of her and Layla almost fell before regaining her balance.

All three-woman seemed shocked at what Lucy did, including Lucy herself. Angela opened her mouth to say something, but Layla turned around and ran to her car, her hand pressed against her cheek.

Layla's hands shook violently as she attempted to turn the car on until she dropped the keys to the floorboard. She panted, turning the light on only for her to catch a glimpse of her hand, a thin layer of blood coating her palm. The confusion distracted her, causing the pain in her chest to subside momentarily. She pulled the visor down, opening the mirror.

There was a gash from the top of her cheek bone to the corner of her lip. A steady stream of blood running down her cheek, dripping onto her shirt and leggings. Her discovery of the wound seemed to flick a switch in her brain because the pain hit her. Her face was hot, and it throbbed. She couldn't tell how wide it was due to the blood, but it didn't matter, the pain in her chest returned and her breathing became labored once more.

She didn't have control over her actions, she was operating on autopilot. Her phone appeared in her hand, she couldn't consciously read the names of her contacts, but she pressed the call button and pressed it to her ear.

0000

Spencer yawned as the elevator opened up to BAU. J.J., Morgan and Hotch followed him down the hall towards their respective desks and offices. His time in Miami left him with a slight sun burn and almost no energy at 4 in the morning.

He slumped down at his desk, trying to decide what he needed to do before heading home to his apartment. After a few seconds of thinking about it, he decided he wasn't going to do anything and simply made sure all his things were packed up and all the files locked in his desk before getting up.

"Time to head home." Hotch said from up on the landing outside his office. Morgan and Spencer looked up at him. "I don't want to see your guys here tomorrow either." That was all he said before heading back into his office. That worked for Spencer and Morgan. Spencer waited for Morgan to pack up before they walked back towards the elevator.

"Need a ride home?" Morgan asked as the elevator door shut them in.

"I can take a cab."

"Seriously man, it's like five seconds out of the way." Spencer frowned, to tired to really argue. Spencer's phone started ringing when they made it onto the first floor and began moving through the lobby. Layla's name confused him slightly, she hadn't ever called him that early in the morning unless they had already been texting back and forth.

"Hello?"

"Are you in town?" Her voice was shaky, and he could hear her breathing roughly through the receiver, he couldn't tell if she was crying or not.

"Yes, are you okay? What's wrong?" She rambled through a string sentences but the only words he could made out were Lucy, hospital, grandpa and bleeding. "Bleeding? Who's bleeding? You're at the hospital?"

"No! Grandpa's in the hospital. My face is bleeding." He could hear her gasping for breath like she was running.

"Where are you?"

"The hospital."

"What hospital?" She started rambling on again, this time faster and he couldn't understand her. "Layla, please slow down, take a few deep breaths." She did as he told her. "Okay, can you tell me what hospital? Then we can talk about what happened."

"Washington Memorial."

"Okay, I'll be there in a few minutes, what floor are you on?"

"I'm in my car in the parking lot." Spencer pressed the phone tighter to his ear. Morgan gave him a questing look, Spencer shook his head at him.

"In your car? Do you have Leo with you? Why are you bleeding?"

"No." Her voice broke. "I, I, I." She hiccuped. "L-L-Lucy found out."

"Dude, what hospital?" Morgan had the diver side door open waiting for Spencer to climb inside the passenger one. Spencer didn't even realize he had walked all the way there.

"Washington Memorial."

000

"That's her car." Spencer pointed to the lonely black SUV near the back of the parking lot. Spencer was guessing her phone had died, at least that's what he hoped happened. Morgan parked next to her car, Spencer could see her slightly through the glass thanks to the lights in the parking lot, she was leaning her head against the steering wheel.

"You want me to stay?"

"No." Spencer grabbed his bag and climbed out. "I'll be fine." Morgan looked like he wanted to argue but bit his tongue.

"Okay, call me if you need me." Spencer said a quick thanks before moving to her car. He opened the backseat, slightly surprised to find it unlocked, tossing his things inside. She jumped, turning around to look at him. The amount of blood on her face made him falter. He shut the door and moved around to the diver side, opening the door.

It didn't seem like she was capable of forming coherent sentences. "What happened?" He tried looking at her face, when he went to touch it, she flinched. "Come on." He gently pulled on her arm so she would climb out of the vehicle. Her hair was a mess, eyes bloodshot, her face was still bleeding, and it didn't seem to register for her. As she slid down from the seat, he noticed the raw skin on both of her wrist. While he was a little thankful that she seemed to be mostly calmed down, he was upset that he couldn't have helped her sooner. She stumbled when her feet hit the ground and he caught her. It was the first time Spencer noticed how tiny she was. Whenever he was around her, she was either in heels or he was sitting down. She was a foot smaller then him, the top of her head barely came up to his shoulder. He reached up for her face again, this time she let him. He angled her head so he could have a better look at her cheek, frowning as he did so. "How long has it been bleeding?" He asked her. She took a few shuttering breaths. Knotting her fingers in his shirt before she answered.

"I…I think…I called you after it happened." She hiccuped.

"About 20 minutes." He mumbled it to himself. He wanted to know what happened, but he didn't want to push her back into hysterics. He would ask her after she was calmed down for an extended amount of time. "This is going to need stitches." He said and he felt her head start to shake.

"I."

"I'll go in with you." He assured, "I'll stay with you the whole time." His stomach was churning in anger as he watched the blood flow slowly down her cheek. There were several small streams down her neck but most of it was just dripping off onto her shirt, the fabric was black so all it did was look wet. It looked like she was going to resist again. "Come on Layla." He tried pulling her towards the building, but she dug her heels into the ground and pulled away from him violently.

"No, please Spencer, no."

"It needs stitches." He said.

"Please."

"Layla, it's not going to heal right and it's going to scar."

"Please. They're probably in there."

"Who?" His thoughts went back to their conversation on the phone. "Lucy? Did Lucy do that?" Layla didn't answer, she couldn't look at him in the eye. Spencer took a deep breath. "She's not going to hurt you again, okay? You need stitches, if she bothers you, we can have security kick her out." She still didn't look at him. "Come on." He said, gently putting his hand on her lower back. She didn't fight with him, but she wrapped her arms over her stomach as he led her towards the emergency room.

 **Thank you guys for reading and all of your reviews. Please leave your thoughts down below. DO you guys think Lucy and Angela are still in the hospital? If so, how do you think they will react to Spencer?**


	12. Chapter 12

Spencer didn't really think of himself as an aggressive person. In fact, he felt he was very logical and cool tempered. He thought things through, and he always tried gathering all the facts before deciding on how to react to the situation. But as he led Layla into the emergency room, he had to bite his tongue to keep himself from saying the things he wanted to say, the last thing he needed was to upset Layla any more then she already was.

Spencer managed to piece together a story from the fragmented information that Layla had provided. Elliot hurt himself and had to come to the hospital, Layla's family was contacted and in turn, Lucy found out about the pregnancy and cut Layla with something. He couldn't quite picture how Layla was hit, he didn't think a middle-aged woman would be carrying around a knife. Either way, Layla needed stitches. Layla froze in the middle of the doorway, she grabbed Spencer's hand with both of hers. Spencer looked down at her before glancing around the rest of the room. It didn't take him long to see who the problem was.

At the sign in desk, there were two women, one of them was speaking loudly enough for both Spencer and Layla to clearly hear what they were saying from all the way across the room.

"What part of, I'm here to see my father, don't you understand?" Lucy questioned. The two of them couldn't understand what the woman responded, but Spencer could tell she was getting frustrated. Spencer realized that taking Layla up to the desk was probably a bad idea and sent her to sit in a chair that was a little out of the way while he grabbed the papers she needed to fill out. He was hoping they wouldn't notice her in the room, better to avoid the confrontation until he spoke with Layla about what she wanted to do. Spencer waited until she was sitting, before he moved towards the desk. The woman watched him walk up and she leaned around Lucy's form to speak with him.

"What can I do with you tonight sir?"

"I'm not done speaking with you." Lucy said before Spencer could open his mouth.

"Mam, there is nothing I can do to help you. If you want to see your father, you're going to have to come back during our visiting hours." Lucy blew out a huff.

"Your service is unacceptable; I'm going to need to speak with your supervisor." The woman smiled tightly.

"Of course, if you'll please step to the side and allow me to help the man behind you, I'll grab my supervisor for you." Lucy huffed again and dramatically side stepped. "Sorry about that sir, what can I help you with." Spencer forced himself not to look at Lucy or the Angela, at least that's who he guessed it was. Layla had told him before they almost always traveled together.

"Uh, my girlfriend," he stumbled over the word, "I'm pretty sure she needs stitches, she's sitting in the back, I came to grab the forms for her." The woman nodded and Spencer finally read her name tag, Gracie. She handed him a clipboard and a pen. "Oh and um, you wouldn't happen to have some gauze or a cloth? Just so I can help her clean some of the blood?" Her smile faltered but she stood up and said something about grabbing it for him. Spencer tapped his fingers against the surface of the counter, keeping his attention on Gracie as she spoke to another nurse.

"Where do you think Layla went?" Angela asked Lucy in almost a hushed tone.

"Doesn't matter."

"You shouldn't have hit her. She reported her father for showing up to her door, you really think she won't go to the police? Dad's going to be pissed." Angels' voice was timid, like she was trying not to make Lucy more angry then she already was.

"I didn't hit her." Lucy's arms were crossed underneath her chest.

"Lucy, you can't pretend like it didn't happen. That was too far, and you know it."

"Her word against mine. Layla needs to learn her place. Her parents are right, she needs to learn respect. And Dad will understand once he finds out about her being knocked up." Lucy spit out the words.

"We don't even-"

"Yes, we do." Spencer bit the inside of his cheek and grabbed the gauze from Gracie's hand, barely able to open his mouth wide enough to mutter a thank you.

Layla was sitting in the back corner, a seat that was kind of blocked by a plant. Spencer sunk into the chair next to her, turning his body towards hers. He frowned at the amount of blood on her face, his thoughts going back to the conversation he overheard. Gracie had given him a decent amount of gauze, so he bunched some of them up and had her hold it against the wound. Spencer then started to dry the blood underneath the cut on her chin.

"Head wounds always bleed a lot." Spencer told her, "20% of the blood your heart makes travels up to your brain. So, when the blood vessels are ruptured, there's a lot more pressure expressing the blood out." She flinched as he pulled on the skin a little harder then she would have liked. "It doesn't help that every time you talk or change your expression, it pulls on the wound and reopens whatever clots had time to form." There wasn't much Spencer could do without water and he didn't want to bring more attention to her by taking her to the bathrooms.

Layla filled out the forms silently. Spencer was almost worried about how detached she looked. He didn't press it though, now wasn't the time to try and get her to open up to him. But it wasn't that she was detached, it was because she was listening to the nonsense that Lacy was spewing at the front of the room. It seemed like, every time Lucy snarled at her current victim, the words fed the pit in Layla's stomach. Layla wasn't a stander to anger, but this was the first time in her life that she wanted to take it out on a particular person. Even her parents, Layla preferred to avoid them rather than tell them how she really felt.

When she finished, he took them back up to the desk, finding it harder then normal to dodge all the people that were sitting in the various chairs. He knew it was going to take far longer then he wanted it to for them to get called back. If they hadn't already been in the parking lot of the hospital, he would have taken her to an urgent care.

Lucy was ripping into the supervisor and he knew it was only a matter of time before she got escorted out. As long as she left Layla alone, then he didn't care what happened to her.

0000

Lucy and Angela got kicked out about 10 minutes after Spencer turned in the paper work. Layla and Spencer were called back three hours after they signed in and it took over an hour for the doctors to clean her face and stitch it.

All Layla wanted to do at that point was go home and pass out in her bed. She didn't want to go to work, she didn't want to spend any more time in the hospital, but as they were walking out of hospital, the front doors were being unlocked for visitors.

"I'm sure he'd understand that you're sleeping." Spencer said as he watched her debate in her head on what to do.

"I know." She said, "But just popping in for a few seconds isn't going to hurt anything." She sighed, "I don't want him to worry." Spencer didn't argue with her even though he was just as, if not more tired.

Layla was a little worried that she would be waking him up but shook it out of her mind, if he was, then she'd leave a note. There were different nurses then there had been when she left the few hours before, they all seemed just as nice though, smiling at her and Spencer as they passed.

"Do you want me to wait outside?" Spencer asked her, adding a little more pressure to the small of her back as if to gain her attention. Layla glanced at the slightly ajar door and bit he inside of her cheek. She couldn't think very well, everything in her head seemed to be moving slower then they were supposed to be.

"Umm…yeah." She said, "I'll be quick." Layla didn't think that her grandfather would appreciate meeting someone new while in the hospital. Spencer nodded, moving so he was leaning against the wall and out of the middle of the hallway. Layla looked at him for a long seconds before pushing the door open and popping her head inside. Layla wasn't surprised to find him sitting up, speaking to a nurse as she checked his blood pressure.

"Alrighty, everything's looking good." The nurse sounded way to chipper for Layla's current mood. The nurse handed him a small cup of medication before smiling at Layla as she left the room. Elliot downed his meds before he noticed his granddaughter.

"What happened to your face?" He found himself reaching for his glasses that sat on the table next to his bed. Her parents were the first thing that came to mind, he couldn't think of any other situation that would cause the gash. He reached out for her arm as she moved closer to his bed.

"I'm okay." She said, going to smile but the action tugged on the stitches. Even opening her mouth to speak was painful now that all the adrenaline had worn off.

"What happened?" He repeated.

"Aunt Lucy found out I'm pregnant." Layla sighed. As much as she didn't want to stir the pot of animosity that her family was already boiling in thanks to her, she wasn't going to lie to Elliot. Layla watched as his face transformed form concern to anger.

"Lucy?" Layla nodded.

"I saw her when I was leaving to go home. We uh," she blew out a long breath, explaining the confrontation in as much detail as she could, both for Elliot and herself. She needed to remind herself what happened.

Elliot looked torn. Cutting off one daughter had been very difficult for him, he understood that it was the right thing to do, watching Layla grow over the last 5 years was proof of that, but he didn't know if he had it in him to cut off Lucy, not when he only had a year left. At the same time, he wasn't going to protect Lucy, she's an adult.

"Are you going to the police?" Elliot asked. He was surprised at how calm Layla looked. He could see she was tired, but her eyes didn't have that wide, anxious look that he'd been expecting.

"I don't know what I'm doing." She said.

"I'll support whatever you decide to do." He said carefully, sighing as he did so. He didn't understand where he failed as a parent for two out five of his children to feel so…superior to others, especially to family. Elliot knew Lucy's problem was her commitment to her sister, but that didn't excuse her treatment of Layla.

"Um, but regardless." Layla took a deep breath, squaring her shoulder's like she needed to talk herself up to say what she needed to, "I don't want to be around her anymore, not at home, not at family gatherings… if just…seeing that I'm pregnant caused her to…assault me, that's not even considering the carelessness she has when it comes to my allergies, I… I just can't, no I won't risk my babies' lives." Layla shook her head. She watched her grandfather's face. It was the first time she ever blatantly gave him a boundary, the first time she flat out told him what she wanted. Normally getting her opinion on anything that didn't involve literature was like pulling teeth.

Elliot looked her over for a long second. He could see the hard expression on her face starting to crack. She was scared of his reaction. He understood how much it probably took her to say it, and he was proud, so he swallowed the displeasure he felt at the idea of telling his daughter she was no longer welcome in his house. "Okay." The relief on her face shined though immediately. "Like I said, I'll support what ever you decide to do." Layla almost hugged him, but she didn't want to put any pressure on his hip.

"Spencer wants me to go to the police." She said after a few moments of silence, running her hand through her hair, her fingers getting caught in several knots.

"You've already spoken to Spencer about it?"

"Yeah," She glanced behind her at the door, rubbing her arm like she was cold, "I called him after it happened, he's been here with me all night."

"Why's he out in the hall?"

"You're in the hospital, I thought it would be a little too much at once for you guys to meet right now."

"Nonsense, let him in." Layla chewed on her bottom lip, faltering for a second at his request. She thought about fighting him on it, but what harm could it do?

Spencer was right where she'd left him, mid yawn as she opened the door. "He wants to meet you." Layla said softly after he noticed she was there. Spencer pressed his lips together tightly. He saw this coming. Layla pushed the door open for him, glancing between the two men. She wasn't that worried about Elliot not liking Spencer, but at the same time, Elliot could be protective.

"Um…Spencer, this is my grandfather Elliot. Grandpa, this is Spencer." Spencer saw him reach his hand out for him to shake. Normally, Spencer wouldn't even think about shaking it, too many germs, but the anxious face on Layla and just his understanding of what a hand shake means in a social context, he decided to shove his preferences to the back of his mind and extended his hand as well and shook it with the older man.

"Nice to finally meet you Spencer." Elliot took in the tall man's lanky appearance. He was dressed in a nice button down top and slacks. The only thing that made Elliot's eyebrows furrow was the small dark red stains on his chest. After looking at Layla again and saw the stiches, he made the connection that the stains were from his granddaughter's face. Spencer smiled at his words, wrapping his arm around Layla's shoulders, not liking how tense and uncomfortable she looked.

"I've heard a lot of good things about you." Spencer said.

"I appreciate you coming to help Layla."

"Of course." Spencer said, his tone slightly strained. "She needed me." He looked down at the closed gash on her face. Layla smiled softly at his words. It was a weird feeling for her to have someone willing to drop whatever they were doing to help her. In the last four weeks, Spencer had managed to prove to her just how committed he was. Of course, her friends would have came but none of them could read her quite like Spencer could, maybe it was his psychology degree, either way, she was beyond thankful.

There was so much more Elliot wanted to know, but he would have his time to get to know Spencer. At the moment, the older man could see the exhaustion on both of their faces. "Why don't you to go on and get some sleep. If you spend anymore time in here, they might not let you out." The joke was met with a small chuckle from Layla as she lightly wrapped her arms around Elliot, barely touching him, just enough to call it a hug.

"Call me if you need anything." Layla said, "I'll try and come back sometime before visiting hours are over for the night." Elliot waved her off.

"I'm sure your aunts will keep me company throughout the day. Get some sleep, call out of work. I think you deserve a lazy day." Layla nodded absently. She probably would call out of work, the thought of walking into Hooters made her shiver. Spencer gave a little wave as they left the room.

"Do you…" Layla started as they waited for the elevator, Spencer waited quietly for her to continue. "Do you want to come back to my house or do you want me to take you home?" While she knew that the only thing she'd be doing at home was sleeping, she didn't want him to leave.

"What do you want me to do?"

"What do you want to do, you already spent all night with me. I get it if you want to sleep in your own bed." She licked her lips, "but…I can tell you from having slept in your bed before, mine _is_ more comfortable…" She looked up at him through her eyelashes.

"It is?"

"Mmmhmm." The door opened; Layla pulled him inside. "It's like sleeping on a cloud. And it's a queen so there's plenty of room." Spencer knew she was trying to lighten the mood, and honestly he didn't want to go home and be by himself either. He found Layla to be refreshing, every time he was around her, it didn't matter what was going on, he just felt better. Less neurotic, less out of control. Being around her offered him the same amount of escape that the drugs had once offered, but instead of hard crashes and withdraws, he got smiles and giggles, at least when she wasn't being harassed or assaulted by her family.

They went back and forth a few more times before Spencer decided he'd have to see for himself just how comfortable the bed was.

 **Thank you guys for reading! i know theres not much action to this chapter, but it was more or less for Spencer and Layla to grow a little closer and for him to meet Layla. and i wanted to get something up before my AP exams this week. The next chapter or two is really going to mix things up, Lucy's clusterfuck of a "family gathering" is going to take place and Layla's finally going to meet the team, just something to look forward to. I'll try and get them up asap but like i mentioned before, exams are breathing down my neck.**

 **Please leave your thoughts! i love hearing from all of you!**


	13. Chapter 13

Layla tried to think through most of her actions before she did them, tried to figure out what the end result might look like before it happened. It helped her avoid bad situations and keep her out of trouble for the most part. But, when she was running on less then three hours of sleep, things tended to escape from her mind, like the fact that Spencer was nervous around large dogs.

"They aren't going to hurt you." She told him as they climbed out of her car. "They might jump on you, but that's about the extent."

"Jump?"

"They get excited when they meet new people, there's nothing to worry about." She saw the disbelieving look on Spencer's face and chose to ignore it. Despite Spencer's lack of enthusiasm when it came to her animals, he was impressed by the house. The front had two sets of dramatically sloped roofs, one slightly overlapping the other. He could see a flat roof in the back, taller then the ones in the front which told him there were multiple stories. The front door reminded him of the one's hobbits had outside their homes.

Spencer jumped slightly when he heard the dogs start barking. Layla casted him one slightly sympathetic glance before unlocking the door and pushing past Leo who attempted to push his head out the door. "Get back!" Spencer licked his lips and thought about getting back in the car, but decided against it, slowly following her inside. Leo was sitting obediently a few feet away from the door like Layla told him to, while two of the other dogs, the pit bulls, were circling Layla, one moving underneath her legs forcing her to step over him. "Come on." She scratched behind Sirius's ear. The fourth dog had taken notice of Spencer right away, he looked scared to Spencer, taking a few steps towards him before jumping away and barking at him. Spencer just stayed still.

"Argos! He's a friend." Layla extended her hand for the dog, snapping her fingers in an attempt to get him to come to her. "Stop barking!" Argos growled, circled around before running into the living room and jumping on the couch.

"Why is he growling?"

"He's throwing a fit because he doesn't know you, and he's probably upset that I left him alone here all night. He's kind of stuck up." While they were talking, Orion had come up to Spencer, sniffing at his shoes. "That's Orion, he's a sweetheart, this is Sirius, he's shy, it will take him awhile to warm up to you. And you've met Leo." After a few seconds of sniffing him, Orion jumped up on Spencer, licking his shirt. "Get down." Layla swatted at the dog. "Go lay down everyone!" It took a few more orders before Orion listened, Leo listened on the first one, but Sirius sat where Layla had left him, Spencer gave him a weary glance.

"Sirius couldn't hurt a fly if he wanted to." Layla said when she saw Spencer's face.

"Pit Bulls have one of the most powerful jaw strengths."

"He's never even attempted to bite anyone; all he does is follow me around and cry." Layla pulled Spencer upstairs, all four dogs following behind them at various distances. "Do you want to take a shower?" She pushed the door to her bedroom.

"Uh. Yeah, that would be nice." Layla nodded her head to a closed door on the other side of the room.

"I'll grab some of the guest shampoo, conditioner and body wash. I'm sure you don't want to smell like strawberries." Layla moved out of the room before Spencer could add anything. Spencer sighed. The bedroom was clean, but there was a bit of clutter. Spencer was slightly surprised; he would have thought everything would be rigidly organized. Layla seemed like someone who constantly fought for control, organization was a way for her to do that.

"I hope off brand is okay." She said, reading the labels as she came back into the bedroom.

"That's fine. Are you sure you don't want to take a shower first?" He asked.

"No, I'm going to let the dogs out and try to get my shift covered for this afternoon." She licked her lips. "I'll get one after you're done." She assured. Spencer didn't argue and she showed him how to use the shower heads before leaving him to his devices and heading back downstairs.

The dogs happily took off into the back yard the second she pulled the sliding glass door open. She watched them for a few moments before deciding they were fine and called Marissa. "I love you, but there better be a damn good reason for you to be calling me before 10."

"Sorry, I know you like to sleep in." Layla brushed her fingers through her hair, catching them on a few snags. "But, I've been at the hospital all night and I really can't go into work tonight. I was hoping you might, maybe, could cover me." She found herself balancing on her tippy toes as she asked.

"Why were in the hospital? Are the babies alright?" She sounded less asleep.

"Yeah, they're fine. Grandpa fell, broke his hip and Lucy found I'm pregnant and slapped me, I guess her wedding ring got caught on my cheek or something, I had to get stitches."

"Are you fucking kidding me? Please tell me you're going to press charges. Where are you now?"

"Yes." Layla took a deep breath. "Spencer and I are going to the police station later today, and I'm at home. I need some sleep."

"Is Spencer with you?"

"Yeah, he's in the shower. He's been up for God only knows how long. He came straight from work."

"Okay, call me if you need anything else, okay? I'll cover your shift tonight, and I'll let a manager know, don't worry about it. Does Elliot need anything at the hospital?"

"I'm sure Aunt Macy and the other two will handle anything he needs. They all know he's in there."

"Have you told Elliot about Lucy? Does he know?"

"Yep. I told him before I left this morning. I told him I don't want her around me anymore. That she was a threat to myself and my unborn kids. He took it pretty well. I'm sure that's going to have some consequences though." The more Layla spoke about her aunt, the more tired she got. It was all just becoming way too much for her to handle.

"Who gives a fuck what she does as long as she does it away from you. Just make sure you keep a record of all the messages and whatever, you know. And once the babies are here, I wouldn't put it past any of them to not call CPS or something. Just be prepared for that."

"God, I didn't even think about that."

"You've got a long time before CPS can do anything; they aren't going to remove them from your womb. Just throwing it out there. I can send Noah over to help change the locks." Marissa offered.

"No, I have to talk with grandpa about something like that before I do it. I'll call you if anything new happens. I've got Spencer with me, so I should be fine."

"Ooh, is he spending the night?" To say her tone was suggesting would be an understatement.

"Your tone is not appreciated, and actually it's the daytime, not nighttime and he just-"

"What are you going to wear?" Layla stuttered for a few seconds before she was able to recognize her words.

"Wear? What do you mean? We're going to sleep. Eyes closed, why does it matter what I wear-" She cut Layla off again.

"The black night gown you bought at Victoria Secret that last time we went!"

"Sleeping, do I need to give you the definition of the word?" Layla glanced over her shoulder, almost worried that Spencer would be standing right behind her.

"It doesn't matter. A little eye candy isn't going to hurt anything. Show him what he gets for helping you with your batshit crazy family."

"Marissa. I am…I'm not going to wear it. I'm going to take a shower and wear what I wear to bed every night."

"Come on! Layla, its nothing he hasn't see before, you are pregnant!"

"No. Drop it. We're still getting to know each other; I don't want to make it any more complicated than it already is."

"You're pregnant," Marissa said bluntly, "it can't really get any more complicated than it already is. Let him get close."

"He's not like that, he hasn't even mentioned sex at all. Like, at all. He's like the nicest guy I've ever met. He's sweet, he cares…" Layla wrapped her free are around herself, glancing at the dogs again. Leo and Orion were wrestling. "We're moving at our own pace, just because I'm pregnant, doesn't mean we need to rush into everything a normal relationship entails." Layla could hear Marissa's frustrated sigh on the other side of the phone.

"Fine, just let him get close, you know you have problems doing that."

"He's currently in my shower, I'd say that's pretty close when you compare it to just about anyone else that's ever been in my life."

"Touché." Layla smiled and laughed a little.

"Okay, I'm going. Thank you for covering my shift. I'll let you know how things go after we go to the police later."

"Kay, talk to you then." Layla called the dogs inside, filled up their bowls and went back into her bedroom. She was surprised to find Spencer already out of the shower, dressed in his pajamas and sitting on the edge of her bed, going through his phone. She didn't know what she expected him to wear to sleep, but sweatpants and a plain black undershirt wasn't it. He looked up when he heard her come in.

"Everything okay?" He asked her, standing up.

"Uh, yeah…" She smiled, "I'm gonna hop in the shower real quick. If you're hungry or thirsty, help yourself to anything in the kitchen." She pointed her thumb over her shoulder, her lips pressed tightly together.

"Alright…" He said, not liking the change in her. She grabbed at some yoga shorts and a tank top before rushing into the bathroom and shutting the door behind her. Spencer waited a few seconds before sitting down again. He was hoping he wasn't the reason for her change in mood. He set his phone down, a yawn taking over his face. He would have rolled over and allowed himself to pass out, but something caught his eye. She had a few things piled on her nightstand, she had printed out her work schedule, some forms that looked like Eliot's medical information for his insurance, but none of that made him look twice. It was the strip of pictures from the ultrasound that he picked up from the pile.

Spencer wasn't sure how long he looked at them, he tried imagining what he life was going to look like after they were born. He couldn't see housing three babies in his apartment. Layla hadn't mentioned anything about moving out of her grandfather's house, Spencer may be uncomfortable with Lucy having so much access to her home, but her grandfather seemed supportive of her not having contact with Lucy. Him and Layla would have to talk about it soon though.

She took a quick shower, only in there for about 10 minutes before getting out. She was a little nervous as she wrapped her hair up in a towel, drying off and pulling on her clothes. Marissa's words filtered into head and she began to rethink her earlier conversation. Did Spencer want…more from her? It didn't seem like he did, then again, he could just be trying not to rush her, but she seemed to be getting a lot more out of this relationship then he was. So far, all he's done is help her with the doctors, listen to her cry about her family and argue about books. She hasn't done anything for him. She spent more time staring at herself in the mirror and contemplating this relationship then she had spent time in the shower, she felt like she was in high school again, wondering if the guy who kept side eyeing her liked her, accept this time, she was pregnant with the kids of the guy in question.

She left the bathroom after it became clear she was making a mountain out of a mole hill. Now wasn't the time worry about this. The only light that was left on was the one on the empty side of the bed. Spencer was under the covers on his back, the back of his hand covering his eyes. She couldn't tell if he was sleeping or not. Sirius was sitting on the floor at the foot of the bed, he whined at her. She scratched him behind the ears as she passed him. Spencer sighed when she climbed into the bed, telling her he was still awake. He turned to look at her, she turned off the lamp.

"Are you sure you're okay?" He asked her as she moved to lay down.

"Yeah." She said it too quickly. The only reason she didn't lay on her other side was because of the stiches on her cheek. "Just a little nauseous." Spencer thought back to the ultrasound pictures.

"You know its okay to feel overwh-"

"Are you getting anything out of being with me?" The question tumbled out of her mouth. Spencer almost didn't understand her.

"What do you mean?"

She sat back up, her tank-top riding up over her stomach. "I feel like, all that's happened since we started…talking, all that's happened is my stupid family and my stupid PTSD and stupid panic attacks and-"

"Hey, none of that is stupid." It was like she didn't even hear him, she just kept looking down at her lap.

"-and you've just been forced to deal with it because I'm pregnant with your babies."

"Layla," he reached out for her arm. "Layla, look at me." She shook her head, Spencer had to sit up and pull on her chin to make her head turn to him, her eyes were wide and glossy, her face red. "No one is making me do anything. I'm here because I want to be."

"Why? You could probably find someone with a lot less drama and baggage. Someone who went to college, someone with an actual career, not a waitress at Hooters."

"I don't care that you work at Hooters, or that you didn't go to college. That doesn't define you or your intelligence, you're very smart. I don't want to find anyone better because I like you….you…you don't have to _do_ anything Layla, you highly underestimate how much I get from just being with and around you, what I get just from talking to you."

"But-"

"No buts. I'll let you know if there's something I need. Okay?" She licked her lips, and looked at him, searching his face. He moved his hand from her chin to her uninjured cheek.

"You promise?" He nodded, "pinky swear?" she held up said appendage. Spencer laughed at her.

"Do you know where a 'pinky promise' originated from?" He asked as he wrapped his pinky around hers.

"No." She sniffled.

"It actually started in Japan, they refer to it as the yubikiri, which roughly translates to 'finger cutoff' because whoever brakes the promise is supposed to cut off their pinky." He laid back down, pulling Layla with him. She surprised him by turning on her side, settling her head onto his chest.

"I won't make you cut off your finger." She assured. She hooked her leg over his. Their position reminded him of the morning they woke up in his bed, even the scent of strawberries was strong, not that he minded at all. It took Spencer a second to relax into the mattress and let himself fall asleep.

000

Spencer wasn't sure how long he slept for, his phone said it was three in the afternoon. Layla wasn't anywhere to be found, but in her place sat Orion. The dog was just staring at him, laying down with his head resting on his paw. Spencer froze for a few moments before tensely reaching his hand out towards the animal, hoping he'd see it as a peace offering and not bite him. Orion looked at him quizzically before smelling his hand and licking it.

"Alright…" Spencer quickly climbed out of the bed. The bathroom door was open, and he didn't see her inside, so he left the room. He walked through the house, looking for any sign of Layla, nothing upstairs stood out and he found himself moving to the bottom level. He smelled the bacon before he heard the sizzling and he moved towards the kitchen more confidently. "How long have you been up?" Spencer asked, casing her to jump three feet off the ground.

"Oh my god." She turned around to look at him, bacon grease covered tongs in her hand. She used her free hand to cover her chest. "You scared the crap out of me." She laughed at herself before turning back to the stove. He was a little surprised to find her making breakfast in the middle of the day, granted they did just wake up. "Uh…like an hour. I thought you might be hungry when you woke up." She shrugged, glancing at him with a smile on her face.

"You didn't have to cook." He said, moving farther into the kitchen. She had already made a bunch of over easy eggs, scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausage and some tatter tots. There was an awful lot of food for just two people.

"I wasn't sure what you liked for breakfast…so I made everything I could with what I had." She said after seeing his face.

"It's three in the afternoon."

"And we're breaking the fast, AKA the definition of breakfast. Just because we slept late, doesn't make this not breakfast." She moved the last of the bacon to a plate. "Want me to make you a plate?" She asked, grabbing two plates from a cabinet. She didn't wait for Spencer to say anything before loading some bacon onto it, "how do you like your eggs?" She looked up at him expectantly.

"Over easy…" She promptly put some on the plate, she repeated the question, but this time with potatoes. He chose the hash browns and then she added the sausages, handing him the plate along with a fork and knife. He took them to the table, and she followed with the salt and pepper before she went to make her own plate. Spencer looked at the food for a long time, no one had made him a home cooked breakfast since he was a kid. Layla sat down diagonal to him, taking a bite of her bacon. "Thank you." He said.

"Of course." She waved him off, "if you stick around," she took another bite of the bacon, "you're going to gain some weight." She giggled at his face. "I'm sure it won't be much with all the exercise I'm sure you do at work, but I make a lot of pasta and stuff like that, oh and disserts, but you already knew that."

"I normally eat take out and diner food." He said, surprised at just how good the eggs tasted. "But…this is really good." She blushed. "Can you make jello?" She laughed.

"Yes. I know how to make jello." Spencer suddenly seemed very excited. She smiled at him. A knock at the door stopped Spencer from being able to say anything. Layla wrinkled her nose.

"Are you expecting anyone?" Spencer asked. Layla shook her head.

"I'm supposed to be at work." Spencer stood up.

"Do you get a lot of unexpected visitors?" She shook her head again, standing up with him. Spencer followed her to the door. She had to stand on her toes to see out of the peep hole.

"It's my Uncle Steven, Lucy's husband." She said to Spencer in a whisper before she opened the door. Spencer's face fixed into a frown. He was wearing his uniform, despite having been in the police force for more then 20 years, he hadn't been able to rise above a normal police officer.

"Layla, you weren't answering your phone." He said to her, pushing past her into the house, standing between her and Spencer. "Your aunt told me what happened." Layla found herself confused.

"She did?"

"Yeah." Steven gave Spencer an angry look. "Is this him?" Layla's eyebrows scrunched together, not understanding. Her face must have been answer enough. "Okay, you're under arrest for assault and battery. Please put your hand behind you back." He pulled out hand cuffs.

"What? No." Layla said quickly, "Why are you arresting him?"

"Lucy told me everything, you don't have to be scared of him. He can't hurt you again."

 **Thank you guys so much for you comments/reviews. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! please leave your thoughts! I love reading them.**


	14. Chapter 14

"Uncle Steven, he- he didn't do anything!" The officer ignored Layla's words, his gaze never wavering from Spencer.

"Where's your warrant?" Spencer asked, his voice calm. "You can't arrest me without a warrant."

"I have two witness-" Spencer cut him off before he could say anything else.

"Your wife? I- I bet she wouldn't be able to identify me in a line up."

"Sir, I'm going to need you to calm down and do as you're told." Layla moved between them.

"Spencer didn't do anything. Lucy lied to you." Steven looked at his niece, looked at the stitches on her face.

"Layla, move out of the way, I'm trying to help you." He less then gently pushed past her. "Come on, hands behind your back." Layla's eyes almost popped out of her head, but Spencer had an idea.

"You know what? Go ahead." He did as the officer said, turning around with his hands behind his back. He saw the panicked look on Layla's face as he turned. "Layla, my phone is upstairs. Call my boss, Aaron Hotchner, he's under Hotch. Tell him what happened," Spencer winced at how tight Steven mad the cuffs, "he'll meet you at the police station."

"You have the right to remain silent…" Steven read off the rights, interrupting any further attempts at conversation between the two of them. Leo nosed Layla's hand as she watched Spencer get pulled from the house. _What the actual fuck?_ Layla just watched her uncle push him into the back of the police cruiser. Layla couldn't for the life of her, understand what Lucy planned at gain from accusing Spencer of hurting her, she hadn't even met Spencer! For all she knew, Spencer wasn't even here. Steven came back into the house, his face softer then she had ever seen it directed at her.

"Your aunt was worried you would let the abuse go unreported." He said, "but you don't have to worry, I'll make sure its all taken care of." He seemed legitimately sincere.

"Spencer wasn't the one that hit me, Lucy hit me, and I was planning on reporting it later this afternoon." Layla felt her frustration growing. "Let him out of the car!"

"I don't know what he's been telling you, threating-"

"He hasn't done anything!" Layla felt like she was beating a dead horse.

"Its going to be okay." Steven reached his hand out to touch her and she moved away like his hand was on fire.

"No, it's not going to be okay because you're not listening to me. Aunt Lucy hadn't ever seen Spencer before! And he hadn't hit me. Aunt Lucy backhanded me outside the hospital last night." Layla said it slowly. Steven shook his head.

"You need to take a step back and look at what you do to this family." Steven said coldly, "you've already ostracized your parents, I'm not going to let you do it to my wife too."

"Get out." It had to be the pregnancy hormones, there wasn't anything else that could give her the confidence to meet his gaze like she was doing. He also seemed taken aback by her tone.

"Don't-"

"I swear to god, you, your wife, my parents, Angela…ugh!" Layla couldn't convey the words that were running through her mind. She moved away from the front door, shaking her head.

"Layla."

"Get the fuck out of my house." She called over her shoulder, Spencer's phone was still on the nightstand, for a moment she was worried there would be a lock on it, but there wasn't, Spencer would have told her if there was a lock. She heard the front door slam, she was slightly concerned about Spencer being alone with him, but reminded herself quickly that he would get into a lot of trouble if something happened to Spencer, he would be the last the person with him, and with Layla as a witness to them leaving together, it would be really hard to play it off as something else.

Her hands shook as she looked through his contacts, she couldn't tell if her hands were shaking out of anger or out of fear. Either way, she had to hold the device with both hands to keep herself from dropping it. She went through the names so fast that she passed it.

"Damn it." She pressed it too quickly, she hadn't even thought of what she was supposed to say, she didn't know if Spencer had told anyone about her, there was a huge chance that this man wouldn't even know who she was.

000

"Here is the McCarthy File." Emily Prentiss set said file on the end of Aaron's desk. Despite the order to stay home today, she decided that she would rather catch up on her files today and go home early tomorrow. She regretted her choice immediately but pushed through her exhaustion.

"Thank you." He picked it up, flipped through it before nodding and setting it on the growing pile on the corner.

"I should have the Tyler file finished up within the hour." Emily said, shuffling through the names in her head.

"As long as I get it in by tomorrow, we'll be right on time." Aaron assured, his cell phone vibrating on top of the desk. 'Reid' in bold on the screen, Emily caught sight of it before Aaron answered it.

"Reid." Aaron's frown deepened as he thought over the reasons Spencer would be calling him on his day off.

"Um…my name- I'm Layla, I don't- I don't know if- Uh, Spencer told me to call you.". Her voice on the end was shaky and Aaron had a hard time understanding her. He knew Spencer was seeing someone named Layla thanks to overhearing the other agents talking about it.

"What happened? Is Spencer alright?"

"He got arrested, but he didn't do anything!" She added quickly, he could tell she was frustrated, but the shakiness in her tone didn't add up with frustration. "Someone, my- they lied. They didn't have- there wasn't a warrant- Spencer told me to call you." Emily was still standing in front of Aaron's desk, she wanted to ask questions, but she knew to wait until the phone call was over.

"What was he arrested for?"

"Uh, assault I think. I-I…I didn't hear everything he said." He heard the sound of her breathing and a dog barking in the background and

"It's alright, take a couple of breaths, okay?" She wouldn't be able to tell him anything if she had a panic attack, "Did the officer already leave?" Aaron Stood up from his desk, gathering the things he needed.

"Yes, he took him back to the station, I think, I uh got angry and yelled at him."

"Did you get the officer's name?"

"Steven- Steven Wilson. He's my uncle."

"Your uncle arrested Spencer?"

"I…my family is nuts. I…my aunt lied to him, at least I think she lied…I don't know-" Her voice sped up and got louder as she spoke, her words breaking.

"Okay, Layla, I need you to calm down, I can't understand what you're saying when you talk that fast, okay? Spencer's going to be fine, if they didn't have a warrant and nothing happened directly in front of the officer, it won't even go to court. I'm going to go to the police station. Can you meet me there?" His tone was slow, it wasn't comforting, but the authority in his voice calmed her down, it reminded her of her therapist's.

"Yes- I- yes, I'll be there."

"Good, I'll see you then." He hung up.

"Spencer got arrested?" Emily asked, following Aaron out of his office.

"From what I understood; he was arrested for assault. She said that 'they lied' but she didn't say who. The office that arrested him is her uncle."

"Who got arrested?" J.J. asked, they had nearly run into her as they left Aaron's office.

"Reid." Emily said.

"What? Do we know what for?"

"Assault." Aaron said, "I'm on my way to the station now."

"Wait, let me drop these files off in the office." J.J. said, "I'll meet you at the elevator." She didn't give Aaron time to argue before hurrying off down the hall. Emily grabbed her phone and badge from her desk before catching up with Aaron at the elevator, true to J.J.'s word, she was right behind them.

000

Spencer wasn't surprised to find three of his team members waiting for him at the station. Aaron was speaking with the Chief of Police inside his office while J.J. and Emily were sanding off to the side of the front desk.

"Reid." J.J. was relieved to see him, a little surprised to find him in his pajamas, but relieved all the same. Spencer stopped walking, much to Steven's surprise, he attempted to push him forward, but Spencer resisted. "Hotch is speaking with Brown. Are you okay?"

"This isn't a social hour. Come on, move it." Spencer ignored him.

"I'm okay. How much was Layla able to tell you?"

"Just that there wasn't a warrant and that he's her uncle. Hotch was having a hard time understanding what she was saying." JJ explained as Aaron and Brown came out of the office. Brown looked pissed.

"Wilson, what the hell are you doing?" To say that Steven was confused would be an understatement. "Did you seriously arrest a federal agent without a warrant?"

"He's a federal agent?" The question tumbled out of his mouth before he could think them through.

"You would have known that if you had gone through the proper channels." Spencer said rather coldly.

"He assaulted my niece." Steven defended; a badge doesn't protect him from the law."

"Did you witness this assault?" Brown questioned.

"I did not but-"

"But your niece called Supervisory Special Agent Hotchner and told him that you arrested Dr. Reid here for no reason. If you didn't see this alleged assault, then how did you hear of it?"

"Another witness contacted me-"

"Did they make a police report? or did you simply listen to this witness and take it upon yourself to arrest him? That's not how we do things, there's policies and procedures that you must follow before you can arrest someone. Even a rookie would know better!" The conversation was grabbing the attention of the other officers in the building. Brown glanced around, and while he felt the public embarrassment was good for the officer, he'd already aired enough dirty laundry in front of the agents. "Uncuff him." Steven protested but Brown cut him off. "The agents have agreed to stay here until, Layla right?" Spencer nodded, "Until Miss Layla gets here and straightens out the story, if Dr. Reid did in fact assault her, then we will make a report and follow the law as it was written." Steven begrudgingly removed the cuffs, Spencer rubbed the raw skin, his fingers prickling as the blood began to flow back into the appendages. "Go wait for me in my office." Brown waited until the officer passed the threshold of the office door before turning back to the agents. "I'm sorry for how my officer handled the situation, I'll make sure he is punished accordingly."

"Thank you for your cooperation. Once Layla arrives, I'm sure we can figure out the whole story." Aaron said.

"Yes." Brown nodded, "if you could let me know when she gets here?" He nodded back to the office, "I'm going to straighten my officer out."

"Of course." JJ answered.

"Thank you. If you'd like, you guys can wait in that room off to the side. There's a couch and some nice chairs." JJ nodded and Brown left. Emily waited until they were in the room to start talking.

"What the hell was all that about?" She asked Spencer.

"I'm not sure if he was trying to cover for his wife or if she lied to him."

"What was he trying to cover up?"

"Layla called me at four in the morning from the hospital parking lot having a panic attack. Her grandfather fell and was admitted sometime around three, when she was leaving, she ran into two of her aunts, they got into an argument and her aunt Lucy hit her. I'm assuming her wedding ring got caught onto Layla's cheek and cut her, she needed to get stitches. Layla and I were going to come down here and file a report this afternoon, but we had just woken up." Spencer explained.

"So, she tried pinning it on you." JJ connected the dots, "wait, is this the same aunt that tried getting her to eat the nuts she's allergic to?" Spencer nodded.

"Yes."

"What a bitch." Emily shook her head. "What were they arguing about that would make her backhand her niece?" Spencer knew he should tell them about the pregnancy at that point, they would find out the moment Layla walked inside the station, she couldn't exactly hide it unless she wore a really big coat. Layla's 5'1, 110-pound frame didn't do much to hide the three growing fetuses growing inside her.

"Layla's pregnant." Spencer said quickly, "Lucy found out." Both JJ and Emily sputtered, even Aaron's normally stoic face showed his surprise.

"Is it, is it yours?" Emily asked, Spencer nodded.

"Oh my god, Spence!" JJ wasn't sure if she should congratulate him or not. It was hard for her to wrap her brain around the concept of Spencer having a baby. "How far along is she?"

"12 weeks and 6 days." Spencer said, he looked out of the window to the room they were sitting in, just in time to see Layla come in through the front door. He didn't say anything to the other agents, just left the room, Layla was speaking to the receptionist quickly and judging by the woman's face, Layla was speaking to quickly for her to understand.

"Layla." Spencer moved up next to her, her wide eyes zeroed in on him. He nodded to the receptionist before pulling her back towards the room he'd been in a few moments before.

"Are you okay? I'm so sorry!" She blurted out. She wasn't paying any attention to where he was leading her. "I- I, they they're crazy. I-i-I don't understand what her thought process is, it doesn't make any sense and then Steven, Steven's just a, he's a dick. I'm sorry. And, and, and-"

"It's not your fault." Spencer said, cutting her off. "Not even in the slightest, the only people to blame here are Lucy and Officer Wilson." She was wearing a rather pretty dress, but he was guessing she just pulled on the first one she found in her closet, and black flats. The dress was tight though and he was thankful he had given his teammates a heads up.

"No, if you hadn't gone home with me, he wouldn't have arrested you, he wouldn't have even known your name!"

"Correlation does not prove causation."

"In this case, it does!" Spencer shook his head. Layla huffed and for the first time, noticed the other people in the room.

"Layla, this is JJ, Emily and Aaron."

data-p-id=cce82fb1b87b0d224253a4d9d1d6570d,JJ extended her hand for Layla, "it's nice to finally meet you." Layla forced a smile on her face, while she was happy to meet the people who Spencer cared about, this is not how she wanted to meet them. Emily was next. It took a lot for her to keep from gapping at the obvious baby bump, now Emily might not too much about pregnancy, she knew Layla looked farther along than 12 weeks.

data-p-id=fab15e74eaed7c95cafbaecc2a1d5e35,"We spoke on the phone." Aaron said once it was his turn to shake her hand. Her face reddened at the comment. She knew just how much of a wreck she sounded like on the phone. She glanced up at Spencer. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to do.

data-p-id=7707e199ef2fe584cf12889b7dfc5d3a,"Um, Spencer's told me a lot about you guys." She said finally. "I wish we could've met on better circumstances." She absolutely hated it when people found out just how dysfunctional her family really was. It was usually met with horrified expressions and people apologizing or something they never did or had anything to do with. As far as Layla was concerned, this was the worst possible first impression.

"Don't worry about it," JJ said with a soft smile, "our technical analyst Penelope has been on Spencer to set up some kind of meeting. She's going to be very upset that we got to meet you before she did."

"I told Spencer to let me know a date." Layla frowned at him.

"We're not home often." Spencer defended, "and…"

"And…?" Layla continued. "Eh, my friends are bugging me about it to." She confessed. "I'm kind of surprised that Linda hasn't followed me to your apartment."

"That sounds like something Penelope would do." Emily admitted. "Maybe they'll get along." Layla smiled.

"Chief Brown wants to speak with you." Spencer told Layla after a break in the conversation, "your uncle is going to get into a lot of trouble." He warned.

"Fuck him." She huffed in frustration. "Fuck both of them. I…they're just as bad as my parents, they used to do shit like this to me all the time. Every time I would make a friend or, or, or show any kind of enjoyment or confidence, they had to take it away to 'protect' me. They didn't want me to be 'corrupted' or to get any 'crazy' ideas." She shook her head. "They never got the cops involved though." She said, scoffing. Just thinking about being in the same room as Steven, made Layla want to throw up, she was that angry. "We didn't even get to finish eating breakfast!" She realized.

"Breakfast? Isn't it like, four?"

"Well, the actual definition of 'breakfast' is breaking the fast. I woke up around 2:45….so breakfast." Layla shrugged. JJ and Emily shared a look as Layla thought about all the food she left out on the table and counters; Argos probably got into the food anyway. Layla was still trying to train him to not take unclaimed food. The dog was big and stubborn. It didn't help that Lucy chose that moment to walk inside the station. "What the hell." Layla huffed.

"Is that Lucy?" JJ asked. Layla glanced back at her and nodded.

"Unfortunately. Can I just talk to the guy and fill out the report? I really don't want to get yelled at by her right now." Layla looked back up at Spencer who nodded.

"Is there anything else we can do to help?" Emily asked.

"There should be security footage of the incident, it happened right outside the hospital." Spencer said.

"I'll have Garcia pull when she gets into work in the morning." Aaron said. "I think we should stay until Brown clears everything."

"Emily and I can keep Lucy busy." JJ said.

"You don't have to do that." Layla said, "I wouldn't with a conversation with her on…anyone really."

"Trust me, we can handle her." Layla still didn't like the idea, but she

Spencer led Layla towards the office where Steven was still getting his ass chewed out by Brown. Lucy saw Layla but before she could grab her attention, she was intercepted by both Emily and JJ.

Spencer knocked on the door to Brown's office and opened it when Brown answered. "Layla's here.' Steven looked tense and Layla forced herself not to smirk. It was about time someone got into actual trouble for the awful things that her family does.

The conversation was pretty uneventful, Steven didn't utter a word while she told her side of the story, starting from seeing her aunt at the hospital to Steven showing up on her front porch. The look on Steven's face told her she'd have hell to pay once they were out of his boss's office. Layla did her best to ignore him, they wouldn't do anything, they were already getting into enough trouble.

After Brown was satisfied with her retelling, he got her set up with another officer who drew up a report. While Layla was doing that, Spencer went back to his coworkers, he didn't want them to have to wait when they probably had work to do. Aaron was off to the side on his phone.

"She is filling out the police report now." Spencer crossed his arms over his chest, he was starting to really feel uncomfortable in his pajamas. He didn't see Lucy and briefly wondered where she went, but as long as she wasn't messing with Layla, he didn't really care.

"Good." JJ said. "Are you okay? You've never been arrested before." Her tone was joking.

"Well, since I knew that I would make it anywhere farther then a holding cell, I wasn't to upset." Spencer said, furrowing his eyebrows. "I'm more worried that Lucy's going to escalate after we leave here. She tired pinning in on me because she didn't want to get into trouble. She probably thought she could make Layla go along with it just by telling her to."

"Layla doesn't seem like that much of a pushover though."

"She was a month ago. She would barely look me in the eyes the first time I took her out to dinner. I'm surprised she didn't have a panic attack when she got here." Emily raised her eyebrows.

"That's a fast change."

"I think it's the pregnancy hormones."

"It could also just be from being pregnant, the more she thinks about having her own kid, the more she thinks about the stuff that happened to her when she was a kid and she just now starting to realize just how messed up it was." JJ offered. Spencer nodded.

"Speaking about her being pregnant." Emily said, Spencer could hear some disbelief in her voice, "she looks a lot farther along then 12 weeks, are you sure all her numbers are adding up?" Spencer's expression darkened rather quickly. "I'm sure she's a really nice girl, I just don't want you to get too caught up or attached if she turns out to be lying. You've only known her for what, three and a half or four months at most? And two of those months were spent not even knowing where or who she was."

"Its triplets." Spencer said, "I was there for her doctor's appointment where they conferred all the dates. She's not lying."

"Triplets? Three babies? Spencer!" JJ thought her eyes were going to fall out of her head. "Oh my god!" Spencer cringed at the volume of her voice.

"How are you- that's a lot Reid." Emily said. "You went from being single to being with a girl and, even one kid is a huge change, but three?"

"I'm fine." Spencer said quickly.

"Are you sure? Even after everything that happened last year?" JJ asked. Spencer glanced over his shoulder to make sure Layla was still to far to hear the conversation. "You haven't told her?"

"I'm…I'm, stress is one of the worst things during pregnancy, it's one of the leading causes of miscarriage. Her family already stresses her out enough."

"Spence, that is not the way to start off a relationship."

"I'm fine." He repeated, "I'll tell her eventually. Right now, Tobias isn't a threat and her family is actively harassing and threatening her. That's what I'm focusing on." Having seen all the blood on her face when he opened her car door, it had really started to hit him how fragile the lives inside her were, her emotions already rocked back and forth pretty dramatically.

"If you need to talk, you know we're here for you."

"I know." Spencer glanced over his shoulder again in time to see Layla stand up from the desk she was at and look around the room for him. She looked as tired as Spencer felt.

"You ready to go?" Spencer asked her and she nodded. She looked to Emily and JJ.

"Do you guys like red velvet cookies?" The random question made JJ's eyebrows lift.

"I like red velvet anything." Emily answered.

"You're just looking for an excuse to bake." Spencer said accusingly.

"I am not!" She huffed at him, "I want to thank your friends with baked goods because baking is what I'm good at."

"You don't have to." Emily chuckled.

"I like cookies." JJ protested, giving Emily a look, "if she wants to make them…"

"Morgan would be pissed." Emily said.

"Is Morgan the one who was eating lunch with you that day?" Layla looked up at Spencer.

"Yes."

"I'll make him some to- wait! I'll make everybody some! Ohhh, I can make a bunch of different kinds! I have to make some for my grandfather too anyway!" She literally bounced on the balls of her feet as she said it. Half a second passed and her face got suddenly very serious, "is anyone allergic to anything?"

"There aren't any listed allergies in any of their files." Spencer said and Layla nodded, JJ and Emily gave him a look.

"How many people are on your team?"

"Seven with me included." Layla nodded again.

"Soooo, does 2 dozen a piece sound like enough?" She asked the girls, her tired tone replaced with an excited one.

 **Thank you guys for all your reviews! I love reading them. i hope you enjoyed this chapter.**

 **Questions:**

 **What do you think Lucy will do?**

 **DO you think Lucy told Layla's parents? If so, what do you think they will do?**

 **Thank you for reading!**


	15. Chapter 15

When Layla and Spencer made it back to the house, Layla was almost sure her parents or someone else would be there waiting for them. She was happy to see the empty driveway, all she wanted to do was relax a little before going to see her grandfather at the hospital. She wasn't sure what Spencer wanted to do, she was hoping he would want to stay but she'd understand if he wanted to go back to his own place, she figured he might have dealt with enough of her issues for one day.

"There's probably not any food left." Layla said as she turned off the car.

"Why?"

"Because I haven't been able to get Argos to stop getting into the food on the table if it's left out for too long." She climbed out of the car, waiting for Spencer to open his door before locking it. Spencer nodded. He wasn't as nervous to see the dogs as he'd been that first time, but he was still standoffish at the idea of going in before Layla, so he waited a few feet away from the door as she unlocked it.

She'd been right, all the food that had been at the edge of the table was gone, surprisingly, all the plates were unmoved, and Spencer was impressed with the lack of broken glass on the floor. Spencer helped her clean up the remainder of the food, he even started washing the dishes while she whipped off the table.

"You don't have to do that!" She said quickly, moving to his side almost like she was about to take the utensils from him. "You're a guest, guests don't do dishes." She said. Spencer looked down at her, the very top of her head came up to his shoulder. Spencer remained where he was, not letting go of the sponge and plate.

"It's okay." He said. "You cooked, its only fair that I do the dishes."

"But- you're a-"

"Layla, I'm going to be around a lot." He told her, "I'm not a guest." She bit her bottom lip and bounced on the balls of her feet, something she did when she was excited or anxious.

"But…" Spencer didn't understand her stature, she'd gone from tired and relaxed with him, to uncomfortable and anxious. She hadn't had a problem with him just picking things up. It took her a few moments, but she relaxed slowly. Something clicked in Layla's head, he would be around a lot more, she had been trying to avoid thinking about the future would look like. Obviously, he would be around a lot, they were having kids together. But, what would 'being around' mean, like would they be living together? Would he keep his apartment? She couldn't see herself being able to share her space, she valued it way too much, she needed a place where she could be alone and regroup. But at the same time, with her grandfather's illness the future was very unpredictable.

Layla couldn't imagen her life without her grandfather. He was the only one who stood up for her when she was a kid, he was the one that fought through hell and back to save her from a situation that would of more than likely ended in her death. He risked his relationship with almost all of his children just so Layla could have a normal life. He loved her unconditionally, even though those first few months of her living with him were not fun, he never complained about the doctor bills, the constant validation she needed, the screaming nightmares she'd had, the expensive service dog she had required. No, she couldn't live without him.

"Layla." Spencer said slowly, he resisted the urge to wave a hand in front of her face, "what are you thinking about?" She jumped at his voice, clearing her throat and pulling at the ends of her slightly frizzy hair.

"Huh? Nothing." She bounced on the balls of her feet again and moved through the kitchen, through the archway into the formal dining room where a sliding glass door was placed and let the dogs out. Spencer licked his lip and went back to washing the dishes. He finished a few moments later, drying his hands as he turned back to Layla. Her arm was tightly wrapped around her chest, her elbow propped up on her arm, her hand fingering at her collarbone. "Are you hungry?" She asked Spencer after she caught him looking at her. The question caught him off guard.

"No." He answered. She looked at him a long moment, before nodded and turning to look back out at the dogs. He moved over to her, tentatively placing a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him but didn't move away.

"I'm sorry." She said again.

"Stop saying you're sorry."

"I don't know what else to do, you're not hungry. Cooking and baking are the only things I'm good for." The words weren't said with any emotion, it was like she was simply stating a fact.

"Who told you that?" He said, moving his hand down her arm, pulling hers from her throat where her fingering had left little red scratch marks. She didn't fight him, she actually leaned back into him. She shrugged.

"Why aren't you mad?" She asked.

"I am mad, just not at you." She sighed, "you did really good today." He said. The top of Layla's head didn't even make it to his chin, he would have to angle his head down if he wanted to press his face into her hair. She scoffed at his words.

"Good?"

"Very good. Would you have been able to do all you did today a few months ago without a panic attack?"

"I had a panic attack last night."

"But you didn't have one today."

"One day isn't a milestone of any kind. And I can't believe I met your friends like that. I…I." She shook her head. "The word 'embarrassed' can't convey."

"Don't be embarrassed. They aren't going to hold that against you-"

"It doesn't matter if they hold it against me or not. Do you have any idea how embarrassing it is to have your two of your adult family members try and blame their actions on someone else and try to get him arrested? And why, this isn't going to be the last we hear from them, they aren't going to leave it alone, I don't, I don't want them to hurt you or your career when they're trying to hurt me. That's not fair to you!"

"They aren't going to hurt my career." He assured her. "They can't. I promise you." She bit the inside of her cheek and scoffed. Spencer's hands were resting on her waist, his fingers were resting right where her stomach started swelling outwards. His hands made her skin feel extra warm, warmer than she would have thought someone else could be.

"Why do you think we went home together?" Layla asked, her hands moving to cover his.

"Um." Spencer wasn't sure of an answer. "Copious amounts of alcohol lowered our decision-making skills." She grunted slightly.

"But why us? I mean, why you and me specifically? There were plenty of other prettier women there and I've never had good luck with speaking to guys in bars." Spencer thought about it again.

"Normally I don't speak with girls and I don't think any of them would have argued Shakespeare with me like you did." She nodded.

"Do you regret it?" She asked, turning so she could see his face easier. Spencer's eyebrows furrowed; he honestly hadn't thought about it like that. He wasn't sure his real feelings behind it, his emotions were all muddled together but he wasn't…upset or conflicted about his actions. He hadn't thought about what would have happened had they never slept together.

"No." He said. "I don't. Do you?" She shook her head quickly, pulling away from him gently.

"I…this is the first time in my life where I've been able to…." She sighed, trying to think of a way to word it that would make sense. "I've never had someone that's really….depended on me. If that makes sense. I have never been able to stand up for myself to my family. I mean, my grandfather has been there for me for the last serval years and Aunt Macy and Uncle Tony have always been good to me, but…" That's when the dogs started coming back into the house. Layla shut and locked the door after the last one came through.

"Learned Helplessness, or the elephant syndrome." Spencer said. She recognized the term from one of her therapy sessions. "You know, Elephant Trainers created one of the most classic examples of learned helplessness. In order to maintain control over their adult elephants, they would tie ropes around their legs when they were babies so they couldn't escape, eventually, they wouldn't try and escape anymore as they grew because, in their head, they would never be able to break free of the rope." Layla squeaked at the new information.

"Poor babies." She frowned. "That shouldn't be legal." She licked her lips.

"But like you were saying before." Spencer said, "all the hormones that are released during pregnancy that are meant to bond the mother and child, or in this case, children, probably have a lot to do with your…progress."

"I guess." She said, "does that mean that when they're born, I'm going to go back to the way I was before?" She didn't like the idea.

"No…" He shook his head. "I don't think you will."

0000

The next week went by very quickly. Spencer ended up having to go into work later that night. When he got there, Spencer had been expecting to be bombarded with comments and more questions about Layla and the pregnancy, he'd prepared for it the entire ride to the office.

"Please be safe." Layla told him when she pulled up to the front doors. Spencer leaned over, and for the first time in their short relationship, he was the one to kiss her. It felt both weird and good to him

"I will." He said. Derek had been walking up at the time Spencer was climbing out of the car. He waved at Layla as she drove away and smirked at Spencer but left it alone. Layla spent the rest of the evening with her grandfather until the visiting hours were over, where she had to explain everything that happened that afternoon.

They arrested Lucy the next day. She was released on her own recognizance and the judge placed an order of restraint against her and Layla until the case was resolved at the request of Layla's lawyer. Layla felt like a weight was lifted off her shoulders when she heard that. The idea that Layla wouldn't have to hear from or see Lucy due to a court order felt absolutely amazing, and if Lucy broke the order then she would be arrested again. Elliot was surprised at his daughter's actions but was relieved to hear about the temporary restraining order, he wasn't looking forward to hearing what Lucy thought about the whole ordeal, but he decided to take it one day at a time.

The cookout got postponed due to Elliot being in the hospital, but due to the late notice on the extension, Anthony, his wife and two kids weren't able to adjust their plane tickets and decided to come at their scheduled time. Anthony figured he could help with some work that needed done on the house and just visit. Macy was supposed to be the one that picked him up from the airport, but she ended up having to get her sick daughter from school. Thankfully, Layla's doctor's appointment finished right before they landed, and she was able get there in time to pick them up, and since they were staying with her anyway, it just made things easier.

"He was a little worried about my blood pressure, but that was it." Layla said into her phone as she watched people move around the crowded area. "But my blood pressure has always been a little high." She stood on her tiptoes in an attempt to see over the people. "I can't wait to send you the ultrasound pictures! The doctor wasn't able to tell the genders for sure, but he said that he should be able to at the next ultrasound in two weeks!"

"Does he have an idea?" He asked tiredly. This phone call had been one of the only breaks he's had on this case and he didn't foresee another one until this case was finished.

"He did for two of them, but I wouldn't let him tell me. For one I don't want be locked onto a gender and then find out it wasn't right, and I want you to be there when we find out." She said. "My friend wants us to do a gender reveal party…but I don't like that idea. I think it should just be something between the two of us- at least when we first find out."

"I'm not sure if my schedule will allow me to attend any more doctors appointments."

"Then I'll have them write it into an envelope and we can find out when your home."

"Are you going to bake it into a cake?" He asked, that's what Haley had done for her and Hotch when she was pregnant, and he could see Layla jumping at the opportunity to bake a cake.

"I was thinking about it." She said sheepishly. "I don't know. How do you wanna find out?"

"We could just open it." He offered, that made the most sense to him. She sputtered for a second before responding.

"That's not fun!" She said, "I guess we can talk more about it when we have an envelope." She licked her lips, "hopefully you'll be able to come." Spencer smiled at the tone of her voice.

"I'll be back soon." He said, looking at the piles of paper and boxes they got from the storage container that he still needed to go through.

"When you do get back, you should come over…" She said, biting her lip. The offer had been in the back of her head since her phone started ringing. After he had been there that one day, her bed had felt to big. She'd been getting three of the dogs to sleep with her at night instead of just the one.

"I'd like that." He said and she relaxed.

"Good." Her smile took over her entire face and she momentarily forgot where she was, so much so that she didn't see her uncle, his wife and their two kids coming towards her.

"Have you been at home alone? While your grandfather is in the hospital?"

"Honestly, I've been so busy at work. I had to cover two of Marissa's shifts because her daughter's sick, and I've been with Grandpa at the hospital. I've barely been at home."

"I really don't want you at home alone while everything with your aunt and parents is going on. That's the best time for them to try something."

"I have four dogs-"

"The dogs can't call the police."

"I'm fine Spencer. And my Uncle's going to be here for the next week and a half." She licked her lips.

"Have you heard anything from them?"

"Not from my Aunt." She said.

"Your parents?" She was silent and Spencer sighed. "What did they do?"

"It's just…text messages and voicemails. Lucy told them about the pregnancy and…" Spencer could hear her voice shaking a little. "Its…nothing."

"It doesn't sound like nothing."

"I don't want to- it's fine really."

"Laya-"

"I don't want to talk about its Spencer." She instantly felt bad for snapping at him.

"Who's Spencer?" Layla's uncle's voice scared the ever-loving hell out of her, and she nearly dropped her phone.

"I have to go Spencer. You'll call later?" She asked, her face growing a dark shade of red at the expression her uncle was supporting.

"Yeah- Layla, please, try not to be by yourself, I really-"

"My uncle is here, I'm not alone." She assured. "I promise." Spencer didn't like the idea of leaving the conversation like this but let her rush him off the phone.

"Uncle Tony!" Layla didn't have time to put her phone in her purse before her he wrapped her in a bear hug, lifting her feet off the ground. She saw her aunt standing behind him, a tired smile on her face while both of his son were looking at their respective phones. Anthony put her down, ruffling her hair.

"Who's Spencer?" He asked her again.

"Uh-"

"Oh Tony, leave her alone." Jessica said, pushing at her husband shoulder. "You've got plenty of time to harass her after we get settled in." Anthony grunted but listened to his wife's words. He picked up the suitcase that Layla hadn't even noticed. Layla's cousins smiled at her when they finally looked up from their phones.

Anthony made jokes as Layla led them out of the building and to her SUV. She'd worn a large jacket, not wanting her pregnancy to be the first thing her uncle see. He noted that it was a little warm for to be wearing it. Something about how, even as a Floridian, he would have been sweating underneath the fabric.

"How's Grandpa?" Tracy, the older daughter asked Layla as Anthony loaded everything in the back of the SUV. Layla frowned, moving her sunglasses she had on top of her head, down over her eyes.

"He's been in good spirits." She said sighing, "They're taking him into surgery and bolting his hip back together. It's only a fracture, but he's old, ya know?" Tracy nodded. Layla felt bad about the circumstances that she was seeing this side of her family. She hadn't seen Tracy since the first week Layla had moved into Elliot's house. Layla wasn't huge on texting or phone calls really, she much preferred to speak to people in person, she's spoken to Spencer on the phone more than anyone else in her contact list put together.

"How long is he going to be in the hospital?"

"We're not sure. It could be anywhere between a few days to a week in a half. The doctors were talking about moving him into an assisted living facility temporarily so someone can help him until he can walk and take care of himself again."

"I'm sure he's loving that idea." Anthony said.

"He wants to get a live-in nurse so he can be home, but his insurance isn't going to cover it, hell his insurance isn't going to cover the facility either." Layla sighed. She hadn't even had money to pay her car payment this month, she'd have the money at the end of the week, the payment was just going to be really late. Thankfully they didn't have a mortgage, but even the property taxes were coming up and she didn't know how she was going to pay them.

"I'm sure we'll find a way to make it work." Anthony saw the stress on his niece's face and changed the topic to Alice's, the younger daughter, grades and how she was at the top of her class. Layla found the new topic easy to focus on and was thankful that she didn't have to contribute much. When they made it to the house, Layla was more then happy to show everyone to their rooms. The house was a five bedroom, her and her grandfather took up both master suites, leaving three guest rooms. Layla had cleaned out the one closet to her bedroom after her grandfather made a comment about a nursery. She'd done so in one of her sleepless, 2 AM escapades. Linda had already gone on a few shopping sprees for the newest additions to the family and Layla's closet wasn't going to fit anything else.

"Sorry, the girls are going to have to share a room." Layla said. "The other spare….isn't exactly guest ready." She was hoping he wouldn't question it too much.

"They share a room at home." He chuckled. "It's not that big t a deal." He followed her downstairs, noting that she was still wearing her jacket.

"Feel free to eat anything, and if you want me to cook anything, just let me know." She ran her fingers through her hair and took a deep breath. She didn't have a lot of food in the house, she just didn't have the money for it. Her insurance wasn't covering even half of the doctors appoints and as her grandfather's bills continued to pile up, the gap between what she owed every month compared to what she made just kept getting wider.

"You look a little stressed." Tony said as Layla started putting some dishes away that she has washed that morning, she had tossed her purse onto the kitchen counter. "When's the last time you got some sleep?" He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the counter. Layla shrugged. "Does it have anything to do with the uh, nice cut on your cheek there?"

"I'm fine." He took a deep breath and let it out. Macy had caught him up on what happened with Lucy. He'd been both surprised and not. It had only been a matter of time before one of his sisters started beating on her. If he had an extra room in his place at the time everything went down, he would have taken her away from the entire family. That's honestly what she needed at that time.

"Is it your parents?" He asked and she took a deep breath.

"I really don't want to talk about all of that right now."

"Does it have anything to do with the Spencer you were talking to on the phone?" Her face flushed and Tony knew he had her. "Would you like to talk about him?"

"I really don't want to talk about anything right now."

"Come on!" He threw an arm up dramatically. "you gotta give me something. Am I going to get to meet him before I leave?"

"Yeah." She said, "probably." She smiled softly, "he's out of town at the moment for work."

"Work huh? What's he do?"

"He's in the FBI." Tony nodded in approval.

"FBI huh?" He frowned, "how old?"

"27. I think he'll be 28 soon."

"So, six or seven years?" Layla rolled her eyes. "He can't find anyone his own age?"

"It's not that bad Uncle Tony. He's really nice. Six years really isn't the big."

"Layla, you just turned 21…it's very easy for guys to be nice, to say all the right things and then when they're done, they go back on all the promises they made and turn into different people."

"You don't know him."

"You're right." He said, nodding. "I don't, how'd you meet?"

"We met at a Bar." He made a noise and Layla huffed in annoyance. It took quite a bit for Tony to keep from smirking at his niece's aggravation.

"Starting out on a great foot."

"We did." She said, "and now I'm pregnant." He choked on the air around him. Layla looked at him and crossed her arms to match him.

"You're what?" His expression blanked for a few moments.

"Pregnant, I had gone home with Spencer the night I met him. I…I don't really remember how it happened or why, but it did. Spencer has been very supportive through the entire thing." She shrugged off her jacket, thankfully to finally be able to pull it off.

"Layla." Tony wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. "This…is this a good thing?"

"I think it is." She smiled softly. She dug around inside her bag and pulled out the newest strip of ultrasound pictures. She looked down at them and her smile widened before she passed them to her uncle. He furrowed his eyebrows at the pictures. He had a pretty decent memory when it came to his wife's two pregnancies.

"Why…are there?..." He pulled the pictures closer to his face, "why are there three…"

"Because there's three babies."

"What is this talk about babies?" Jessica came into the kitchen. She had changed from her clothes earlier to a more comfortable pair of leggings and converse and plane white t-shirt. Tony wordlessly gestured to Layla's stomach. "What? Really? Oh my God!" It was a little funny to Layla that the first thing that first response people had to finding out she was pregnant was 'oh my god,' it was like people forget there were other words in the dictionary.

"And there's three of them." Tony added, handing the ultrasound pictures to his wife.

"Triplets?" She looked over the pictures before wrapping her arms around Layla, it took her a little by surprised. "That's amazing! How far along are you? Have you found out the genders? Who's the father?"

 **So, we got to meet her uncle! that's exciting. hopefully layla doesn't run herself raged.**


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